CVE detail

CVE-2021-23841 — CVE-2021-23841

Published 2021-02-16 · Modified 2026-06-17 · Vendor openssl · Product openssl · Source nvd
MEDIUM
severity
CVSS-derived band
5.9
CVSS v3
0–10 scale
0.0747
EPSS probability
exploitation probability, 30d
94.0%
EPSS percentile
percentile vs all CVEs
NOT LISTED
CISA KEV
known exploited catalog

Description

The OpenSSL public API function X509_issuer_and_serial_hash() attempts to create a unique hash value based on the issuer and serial number data contained within an X509 certificate. However it fails to correctly handle any errors that may occur while parsing the issuer field (which might occur if the issuer field is maliciously constructed). This may subsequently result in a NULL pointer deref and a crash leading to a potential denial of service attack. The function X509_issuer_and_serial_hash() is never directly called by OpenSSL itself so applications are only vulnerable if they use this function directly and they use it on certificates that may have been obtained from untrusted sources. OpenSSL versions 1.1.1i and below are affected by this issue. Users of these versions should upgrade

Remediation

No vendor-published fix data in our corpus for this CVE. Check the references below or the vendor's PSIRT / security advisories page.

References

cvedb.io · NVD · CISA KEV · FIRST EPSS · vendor advisories (CVE Program List v5). Informational only, no warranty — verify every remediation against the vendor advisory before acting on it. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD, CISA, FIRST.org or any vendor named. CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.