OpenSSL 3.5 X509 -addreject Bug: Trusted use incorrectly added as Trusted
CVE-2025-4575 Published on May 22, 2025
The x509 application adds trusted use instead of rejected use
Issue summary: Use of -addreject option with the openssl x509 application adds
a trusted use instead of a rejected use for a certificate.
Impact summary: If a user intends to make a trusted certificate rejected for
a particular use it will be instead marked as trusted for that use.
A copy & paste error during minor refactoring of the code introduced this
issue in the OpenSSL 3.5 version. If, for example, a trusted CA certificate
should be trusted only for the purpose of authenticating TLS servers but not
for CMS signature verification and the CMS signature verification is intended
to be marked as rejected with the -addreject option, the resulting CA
certificate will be trusted for CMS signature verification purpose instead.
Only users which use the trusted certificate format who use the openssl x509
command line application to add rejected uses are affected by this issue.
The issues affecting only the command line application are considered to
be Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1 and 3.0 are not affected by this
issue.
OpenSSL 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.1, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are also not affected by this
issue.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2025-4575 can be exploited with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or 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, with no impact on integrity and availability.
Weakness Type
Improper Certificate Validation
The software does not validate, or incorrectly validates, a certificate. When a certificate is invalid or malicious, it might allow an attacker to spoof a trusted entity by interfering in the communication path between the host and client. The software might connect to a malicious host while believing it is a trusted host, or the software might be deceived into accepting spoofed data that appears to originate from a trusted host.
Products Associated with CVE-2025-4575
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Affected Versions
OpenSSL:- Version 3.5.0 and below 3.5.1 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.