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🛡️ CVE-2026-45447 — openssl

🟠 CVSS 8.8 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-416 NVD
8.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Issue summary: A specially crafted PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed message could

trigger a use-after-free during PKCS#7 signature verification.

Impact summary: A use-after-free may result in process crashes, heap

corruption, or potentially remote code execution.

When processing a PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed message, if the SignedData

digestAlgorithms field is present as an empty ASN.1 SET, OpenSSL may

incorrectly free a caller-owned BIO during PKCS7_verify(). A subsequent

use of the BIO by the calling application results in a use-after-free

condition.

In the common case this occurs when the application later calls

BIO_free() on the BIO originally passed to PKCS7_verify(). Depending

on allocator behavior and application-specific BIO usage patterns, this

may result in a crash or other memory corruption. In some application

contexts this may potentially be exploitable for remote code execution.

Applications that process PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed messages using OpenSSL

PKCS#7 APIs may be affected. Applications using the CMS APIs for this

processing are not affected.

The FIPS modules in 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.0 are not affected by this

issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Integrity impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Weakness class

CVE-2026-45447 is classified as CWE-416: Use After Free. Memory is used after being released, so its contents may already belong to something else.

Affected software

CVE-2026-45447 is recorded against 1 package.

  • openssl

Timeline and source

Published on 9 June 2026 and last revised on 17 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com
github.com
github.com
github.com
github.com
openssl-library.org
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
access.redhat.com
bugzilla.redhat.com
security.access.redhat.com

Other advisories for this package

openssl has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-416: Use After Free) in other software:

CVE-2026-45447 on other distributions

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

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 8.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE CWE-416
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2026-06-09
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-17

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
openssl — —

References

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ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the vulnerabilities listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.

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