Vulnerability · Published Jan 10, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-22024CryptoLib Memory Leak in KMC Encrypt Function Leads to Resource Exhaustion

Medium 6.3

In plain English

A medium-severity memory leak in CryptoLib from nasa. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 42% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: public proof-of-concept code.

Severity (CVSS 4.0)6.3Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.5%top 58.4% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack tooling1Public PoC

Official description

CryptoLib provides a software-only solution using the CCSDS Space Data Link Security Protocol - Extended Procedures (SDLS-EP) to secure communications between a spacecraft running the core Flight System (cFS) and a ground station. Prior to version 1.4.3, the cryptography_encrypt() function allocates multiple buffers for HTTP requests and JSON parsing that are never freed on any code path. Each call leaks approximately 400 bytes of memory. Sustained traffic can gradually exhaust available memory. This issue has been patched in version 1.4.3.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
nasa	CryptoLib	< 1.4.3

Weakness: CWE-401 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

References

https://github.com/nasa/CryptoLib/security/advisories/GHSA-r3wg-g8xv-gxvf x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/nasa/CryptoLib/commit/2372efd3da1ccb226b4297222e25f41ecc84821d x_refsource_MISC
https://github.com/nasa/CryptoLib/releases/tag/v1.4.3 x_refsource_MISC