OpenSSL up to 3.3.5/3.4.3/3.5.4/3.6.0 QUIC Protocol SSL_CIPHER_find null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in OpenSSL up to 3.3.5/3.4.3/3.5.4/3.6.0. Impacted is the function SSL_CIPHER_find of the component QUIC Protocol. Performing a manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2025-15468. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in OpenSSL up to 3.3.5/3.4.3/3.5.4/3.6.0. This affects the function SSL_CIPHER_find of the component QUIC Protocol. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

Issue summary: If an application using the SSL_CIPHER_find() function in a QUIC protocol client or server receives an unknown cipher suite from the peer, a NULL dereference occurs. Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference leads to abnormal termination of the running process causing Denial of Service. Some applications call SSL_CIPHER_find() from the client_hello_cb callback on the cipher ID received from the peer. If this is done with an SSL object implementing the QUIC protocol, NULL pointer dereference will happen if the examined cipher ID is unknown or unsupported. As it is not very common to call this function in applications using the QUIC protocol and the worst outcome is Denial of Service, the issue was assessed as Low severity. The vulnerable code was introduced in the 3.2 version with the addition of the QUIC protocol support. The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4 and 3.3 are not affected by this issue, as the QUIC implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4 and 3.3 are vulnerable to this issue. OpenSSL 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are not affected by this issue.

The advisory is shared at openssl-library.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-15468 since 01/06/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 06/09/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 296784 (OpenSSL 3.3.0 < 3.3.6 Multiple Vulnerabilities), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 3.3.6, 3.4.4, 3.5.5 or 3.6.1 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (296784) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0234). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• IBM VIOS
• IBM AIX
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• IBM DataPower Gateway
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• NetApp Data ONTAP
• Siemens SIMATIC WinCC
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• IGEL OS
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• SUSE openSUSE
• Fabasoft Cloud
• RESF Rocky Linux
• IBM App Connect Enterprise
• Dell BIOS
• Dell PowerScale OneFS
• Siemens SIMATIC STEP 7
• Open Source OpenSSL
• Broadcom Brocade SANnav
• Fortinet FortiPortal
• Meinberg LANTIME
• Red Hat OpenShift
• IBM MQ
• Open Source Camunda
• ABB AC-500
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM InfoSphere Information Server
• Splunk Splunk Enterprise
• Phoenix Contact FL MGUARD
• Phoenix Contact FL SWITCH
• Phoenix Contact TC ROUTER
• Dell integrated Dell Remote Access Controller
• Siemens SIMATIC S7
• Insyde UEFI Firmware
• NCP Secure Enterprise VPN Server

Productinfo

Type

• Network Encryption Software

Name

• OpenSSL

Version

• 3.0
• 3.1
• 3.2
• 3.3
• 3.3.0
• 3.3.1
• 3.3.2
• 3.3.3
• 3.3.4
• 3.3.5
• 3.4
• 3.4.0
• 3.4.1
• 3.4.2
• 3.4.3
• 3.5
• 3.5.0
• 3.5.1
• 3.5.2
• 3.5.3
• 3.5.4
• 3.6.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.openssl.org/

CPE 2.3info

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