OpenSSL up to 3.0.11/3.1.3 Length keylen/ivlen buffer over-read

CVSS Meta Temp Score
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CTI Interest Score
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6.4$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in OpenSSL up to 3.0.11/3.1.3. Affected by this vulnerability is the function EVP_EncryptInit_ex2/EVP_DecryptInit_ex2/EVP_CipherInit_ex2 of the component Length Handler. The manipulation of the argument keylen/ivlen leads to buffer over-read. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2023-5363. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in OpenSSL up to 3.0.11/3.1.3 (Network Encryption Software) and classified as critical. This issue affects the function EVP_EncryptInit_ex2/EVP_DecryptInit_ex2/EVP_CipherInit_ex2 of the component Length Handler. The manipulation of the argument keylen/ivlen with an unknown input leads to a buffer over-read vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-126. The product reads from a buffer using buffer access mechanisms such as indexes or pointers that reference memory locations after the targeted buffer. The impact remains unknown. The summary by CVE is:

Issue summary: A bug has been identified in the processing of key and initialisation vector (IV) lengths. This can lead to potential truncation or overruns during the initialisation of some symmetric ciphers. Impact summary: A truncation in the IV can result in non-uniqueness, which could result in loss of confidentiality for some cipher modes. When calling EVP_EncryptInit_ex2(), EVP_DecryptInit_ex2() or EVP_CipherInit_ex2() the provided OSSL_PARAM array is processed after the key and IV have been established. Any alterations to the key length, via the "keylen" parameter or the IV length, via the "ivlen" parameter, within the OSSL_PARAM array will not take effect as intended, potentially causing truncation or overreading of these values. The following ciphers and cipher modes are impacted: RC2, RC4, RC5, CCM, GCM and OCB. For the CCM, GCM and OCB cipher modes, truncation of the IV can result in loss of confidentiality. For example, when following NIST's SP 800-38D section 8.2.1 guidance for constructing a deterministic IV for AES in GCM mode, truncation of the counter portion could lead to IV reuse. Both truncations and overruns of the key and overruns of the IV will produce incorrect results and could, in some cases, trigger a memory exception. However, these issues are not currently assessed as security critical. Changing the key and/or IV lengths is not considered to be a common operation and the vulnerable API was recently introduced. Furthermore it is likely that application developers will have spotted this problem during testing since decryption would fail unless both peers in the communication were similarly vulnerable. For these reasons we expect the probability of an application being vulnerable to this to be quite low. However if an application is vulnerable then this issue is considered very serious. For these reasons we have assessed this issue as Moderate severity overall. The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue. The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are not affected by this because the issue lies outside of the FIPS provider boundary. OpenSSL 3.1 and 3.0 are vulnerable to this issue.

The weakness was released 10/24/2023. The advisory is shared at openssl.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-5363 since 10/03/2023. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 211573 (Oracle Linux 9 : openssl / and / openssl-fips-provider (ELSA-2024-9333)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 3.0.12 or 3.1.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 0df40630850fb2740e6be6890bb905d3fc623b2d is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.openssl.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (211573). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

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CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 6.5
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 6.4

VulDB Base Score: 5.5
VulDB Temp Score: 5.3
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 7.5
NVD Vector: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
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VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
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VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Buffer over-read
CWE: CWE-126 / CWE-119
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: No
Local: No
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

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Nessus ID: 211573
Nessus Name: Oracle Linux 9 : openssl / and / openssl-fips-provider (ELSA-2024-9333)

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Upgrade: OpenSSL 3.0.12/3.1.4
Patch: 0df40630850fb2740e6be6890bb905d3fc623b2d

Timelineinfo

10/03/2023 🔍
10/24/2023 +21 days 🔍
10/24/2023 +0 days 🔍
12/02/2025 +770 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Product: openssl.org

Advisory: openssl.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2023-5363 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2023-5363
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-243221

Entryinfo

Created: 10/24/2023 18:01
Updated: 12/02/2025 22:15
Changes: 10/24/2023 18:01 (42), 11/15/2023 10:09 (2), 10/14/2024 19:11 (26), 11/19/2024 14:15 (2), 12/02/2025 22:15 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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