OpenSSL up to 3.4.6/3.5.7/3.6.3/4.0.1 null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as problematic has been detected in OpenSSL up to 3.4.6/3.5.7/3.6.3/4.0.1. This issue affects some unknown processing. This manipulation causes null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-14457. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic was found in OpenSSL up to 3.4.6/3.5.7/3.6.3/4.0.1. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown functionality. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is 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. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

Issue summary: In a server or client configuration with RFC7250 Raw Public Keys (RPKs) enabled, and only the private key (with no associated certificate) configured locally, a NULL pointer dereference may occur when the remote peer solicits raw public keys and also sends the typically omitted "signature_algorithms_cert" TLS extension. Impact summary: The impact is limited to a possible Denial of Service as a result of an application abort, no data disclosure or remote command execution are possible. CWE: CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference Description: While a passing comment in sample code in the documentation suggests that key-only RPK configurations are supported, the best-practice RPK configuration is to always configure a corresponding certificate (possibly self-signed or signed by any convenient CA). When the private key is configured along with a matching certificate, the "signature_algorithms_cert" extension is handled reliably even without the fix, and peer clients or servers that don't support raw public keys may be able to complete a TLS connection by pinning or verifying the corresponding certificate or its public key. Deployments that prefer to configure just a private key with no certificate need to upgrade to an updated release as noted below. FIPS impact: no No FIPS modules are affected by this issue, as the SSL protocol implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

It is possible to read the advisory at openssl-library.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-14457 since 07/02/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/25/2026).

Upgrading to version 3.4.7, 3.5.8, 3.6.4 or 4.0.2 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Type

• Network Encryption Software

Name

• OpenSSL

Version

• 3.4.0
• 3.4.1
• 3.4.2
• 3.4.3
• 3.4.4
• 3.4.5
• 3.4.6
• 3.5.0
• 3.5.1
• 3.5.2
• 3.5.3
• 3.5.4
• 3.5.5
• 3.5.6
• 3.5.7
• 3.6.0
• 3.6.1
• 3.6.2
• 3.6.3
• 4.0.0
• 4.0.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://www.openssl.org/

CPE 2.3info

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