Vulnerability · Published Feb 8, 2023 · Assigned by openssl
CVE-2023-0401NULL dereference during PKCS7 data verification
High 7.5
In plain English
A high-severity null pointer dereference in OpenSSL from OpenSSL. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 1.8% (higher than 79% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
A NULL pointer can be dereferenced when signatures are being verified on PKCS7 signed or signedAndEnveloped data. In case the hash algorithm used for the signature is known to the OpenSSL library but the implementation of the hash algorithm is not available the digest initialization will fail. There is a missing check for the return value from the initialization function which later leads to invalid usage of the digest API most likely leading to a crash. The unavailability of an algorithm can be caused by using FIPS enabled configuration of providers or more commonly by not loading the legacy provider. PKCS7 data is processed by the SMIME library calls and also by the time stamp (TS) library calls. The TLS implementation in OpenSSL does not call these functions however third party applications would be affected if they call these functions to verify signatures on untrusted data.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlmaLinux:9 | openssl | 1:3.0.1-47.el9_1 | ALSA-2023:0946 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | openssl-devel | 1:3.0.1-47.el9_1 | ALSA-2023:0946 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | openssl-libs | 1:3.0.1-47.el9_1 | ALSA-2023:0946 |
| AlmaLinux:9 | openssl-perl | 1:3.0.1-47.el9_1 | ALSA-2023:0946 |
| Alpine:v3.20 | openssl | 3.0.8-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Alpine:v3.21 | openssl | 3.0.8-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Alpine:v3.22 | openssl | 3.0.8-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Alpine:v3.23 | openssl | 3.0.8-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Alpine:v3.24 | openssl | 3.0.8-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Debian:12 | openssl | 3.0.8-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Debian:13 | openssl | 3.0.8-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Debian:14 | openssl | 3.0.8-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Rocky Linux:9 | openssl | 1:3.0.1-47.el9_1 | RLSA-2023:0946 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | nodejs | 12.22.9~dfsg-1ubuntu3.3 | USN-6564-1 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | nodejs | 12.22.9~dfsg-1ubuntu3.3 | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | openssl | 3.0.2-0ubuntu1.8 | UBUNTU-CVE-2023-0401 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | openssl | 3.0.2-0ubuntu1.8 | USN-5844-1 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-476 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H