🛡️ CVE-2023-6237

🟡 CVSS 5.9 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-606 NVD
5.9
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Issue summary: Checking excessively long invalid RSA public keys may take

a long time.

Impact summary: Applications that use the function EVP_PKEY_public_check()

to check RSA public keys may experience long delays. Where the key that

is being checked has been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead

to a Denial of Service.

When function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is called on RSA public keys,

a computation is done to confirm that the RSA modulus, n, is composite.

For valid RSA keys, n is a product of two or more large primes and this

computation completes quickly. However, if n is an overly large prime,

then this computation would take a long time.

An application that calls EVP_PKEY_public_check() and supplies an RSA key

obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service

attack.

The function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is not called from other OpenSSL

functions however it is called from the OpenSSL pkey command line

application. For that reason that application is also vulnerable if used

with the '-pubin' and '-check' options on untrusted data.

The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue.

The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are affected by this issue.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is high, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2023-6237 is classified as CWE-606: Unchecked Input for Loop Condition. The product does not properly check inputs that are used for loop conditions, potentially leading to a denial of service or other consequences because of excessive looping.

Affected software

CVE-2023-6237 is recorded against 1 package.

  • unknown

Timeline and source

Published on 25 April 2024 and last revised on 17 June 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com
github.com
github.com
www.openssl.org
www.openwall.com
github.com
github.com
github.com
security.netapp.com
www.openssl.org
cert-portal.siemens.com
cert-portal.siemens.com
cert-portal.siemens.com
cert-portal.siemens.com

CVE-2023-6237 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity MEDIUM
CVSS Score 5.9
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE CWE-606
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2024-04-25
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-06-17
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
unknown

References

Similar Threats

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