Excessive time spent checking invalid RSA public keys

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Summary

CVECVE-2023-6237
StatePUBLISHED
Assigneropenssl
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2024-04-25 07:15:45 UTC
Updated2026-05-12 11:16:17 UTC
DescriptionIssue 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.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.9 MEDIUM from ADP

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS: 0.007810000 probability, percentile 0.738100000 (date 2026-05-12)

Problem Types: CWE-606 | CWE-606 CWE-606 Unchecked Input for Loop Condition

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1ADPDECLARED5.9MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0Secondary5.9MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 3.0.0 3.0.13 semver Not specified
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 3.1.0 3.1.5 semver Not specified
CNA OpenSSL OpenSSL affected 3.2.0 3.2.1 semver Not specified
ADP Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux Subsystem affected * custom Not specified
ADP Siemens SINEC NMS affected V3.0 SP1 custom Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/18c02492138d1eb8b6548cb26e7b625fb2414a2a af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 github.com
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240531-0007 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 security.netapp.com
cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-265688.html 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e cert-portal.siemens.com
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/11/1 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.openwall.com
cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-331112.html 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e cert-portal.siemens.com
www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20240115.txt af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 www.openssl.org
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/a830f551557d3d66a84bbb18a5b889c640c36294 af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 github.com
cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-769027.html 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e cert-portal.siemens.com
cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-915275.html 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e cert-portal.siemens.com
github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/0b0f7abfb37350794a4b8960fafc292cd5d1b84d af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 github.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: OSS-Fuzz (en)

CNA: Tomas Mraz (en)

Legacy QID Mappings

  • 200094 Ubuntu Security Notification for Open Secure Sockets Layer (OpenSSL) Vulnerabilities (USN-6622-1)
  • 330164 IBM Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX) Open Secure Sockets Layer (OpenSSL) Multiple Vulnerabilities (openssl_advisory40)
  • 357238 Amazon Linux Security Advisory for Open Secure Sockets Layer (OpenSSL) : ALAS2023-2024-520
  • 38917 OpenSSL OpenSSL Security Update
  • 510670 Alpine Linux Security Update for Open Secure Sockets Layer (OpenSSL)
  • 510671 Alpine Linux Security Update for Open Secure Sockets Layer (OpenSSL)
  • 691408 Free Berkeley Software Distribution (FreeBSD) Security Update for Open Secure Sockets Layer (OpenSSL) (10dee731-c069-11ee-9190-84a93843eb75)
  • 755637 SUSE Enterprise Linux Security Update for openssl-3 (SUSE-SU-2024:0172-1)
  • 755771 SUSE Enterprise Linux Security Update for openssl-3 (SUSE-SU-2024:0518-1)
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