Vulnerability · Published Aug 27, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

CVE-2026-81720openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 Denial of Service via Unbounded Argon2

Medium 6.2

In plain English

A medium-severity uncontrolled resource consumption 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 0.2% (higher than 8% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.2Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 91.8% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate the memory_cost parameter from identity file protection blocks, allowing attackers to trigger out-of-memory conditions during key derivation. Attackers with write access to local identity stores can craft malicious identity files with excessive memory_cost values that cause the host to crash when unlocking identities before authentication.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Ecosystem	Package	Fixed in	Advisory
PyPI	openssl-encrypt	1.4.9	PYSEC-2026-3965

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
jahlives	openssl_encrypt	0 – before 1.4.9

Weakness: CWE-400 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References

GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-783h-8q2f-f762) vendor-advisory
VulnCheck Advisory: openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 Denial of Service via Unbounded Argon2 third-party-advisory