OpenSSL PKCS12 NULL Deref Crash/DoS
CVE-2024-0727 Published on January 26, 2024
PKCS12 Decoding crashes
Issue summary: Processing a maliciously formatted PKCS12 file may lead OpenSSL
to crash leading to a potential Denial of Service attack
Impact summary: Applications loading files in the PKCS12 format from untrusted
sources might terminate abruptly.
A file in PKCS12 format can contain certificates and keys and may come from an
untrusted source. The PKCS12 specification allows certain fields to be NULL, but
OpenSSL does not correctly check for this case. This can lead to a NULL pointer
dereference that results in OpenSSL crashing. If an application processes PKCS12
files from an untrusted source using the OpenSSL APIs then that application will
be vulnerable to this issue.
OpenSSL APIs that are vulnerable to this are: PKCS12_parse(),
PKCS12_unpack_p7data(), PKCS12_unpack_p7encdata(), PKCS12_unpack_authsafes()
and PKCS12_newpass().
We have also fixed a similar issue in SMIME_write_PKCS7(). However since this
function is related to writing data we do not consider it security significant.
The FIPS modules in 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2024-0727 can be exploited with local system access, requires user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a high impact on availability.
Weakness Type
NULL Pointer Dereference
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. NULL pointer dereference issues can occur through a number of flaws, including race conditions, and simple programming omissions.
Products Associated with CVE-2024-0727
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Affected Versions
OpenSSL:- Version 3.2.0 and below 3.2.1 is affected.
- Version 3.1.0 and below 3.1.5 is affected.
- Version 3.0.0 and below 3.0.13 is affected.
- Version 1.1.1 and below 1.1.1x is affected.
- Version 1.0.2 and below 1.0.2zj is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.