Vulnerability · Published Aug 17, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-74878openssl_encrypt before 1.4.0 TOTP Rate Limiter Bypass

Critical 9.8

In plain English

A critical-severity resource allocation without limits in openssl_encrypt from jahlives. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.7% (higher than 55% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)9.8Critical

Exploit odds (30 days)0.7%top 44.9% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.0 use an in-memory rate limiter for TOTP brute-force protection that is not shared across workers and is lost on server restart. Attackers can distribute authentication attempts across multiple server instances or retry immediately after a restart to bypass rate limiting protections.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
PyPI	openssl-encrypt	1.4.0	GHSA-h45m-mgcp-q388
PyPI	openssl-encrypt	1.4.0	PYSEC-2026-3757

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
jahlives	openssl_encrypt	0 – before 1.4.0

Weakness: CWE-770 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-h45m-mgcp-q388) vendor-advisory
VulnCheck Advisory: openssl_encrypt before 1.4.0 TOTP Rate Limiter Bypass third-party-advisory