Last updated 24 July 2024

An instance of OpenSSL::X509::Name contains entities such as CN, C and so on. Some two instances of OpenSSL::X509::Name are equal only when all entities are exactly equal. However, there is a bug that the equality check is not correct if the value of an entity of the argument (right-hand side) starts with the value of the receiver (left-hand side). So, if a malicious X.509 certificate is passed to compare with an existing certificate, there is a possibility to be judged incorrectly that they are equal.

External References:

https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2018/10/17/openssl-x509-name-equality-check-does-not-work-correctly-cve-2018-16395/