Vulnerability · Published Apr 7, 2026 · Assigned by openssl

CVE-2026-28388NULL Pointer Dereference When Processing a Delta CRL

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 0.9% (higher than 60% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.5High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.9%top 39.6% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Issue summary: When a delta CRL that contains a Delta CRL Indicator extension is processed a NULL pointer dereference might happen if the required CRL Number extension is missing. Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to a Denial of Service for an application. When CRL processing and delta CRL processing is enabled during X.509 certificate verification, the delta CRL processing does not check whether the CRL Number extension is NULL before dereferencing it. When a malformed delta CRL file is being processed, this parameter can be NULL, causing a NULL pointer dereference. Exploiting this issue requires the X509_V_FLAG_USE_DELTAS flag to be enabled in the verification context, the certificate being verified to contain a freshestCRL extension or the base CRL to have the EXFLAG_FRESHEST flag set, and an attacker to provide a malformed CRL to an application that processes it. The vulnerability is limited to Denial of Service and cannot be escalated to achieve code execution or memory disclosure. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy. The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine:v3.20openssl3.3.7-r0ALPINE-CVE-2026-28388
Alpine:v3.21openssl3.3.7-r0ALPINE-CVE-2026-28388
Alpine:v3.22openssl3.5.6-r0ALPINE-CVE-2026-28388
Alpine:v3.23openssl3.5.6-r0ALPINE-CVE-2026-28388
Alpine:v3.24openssl3.5.6-r0ALPINE-CVE-2026-28388
Debian:12openssl3.0.19-1~deb12u2DEBIAN-CVE-2026-28388
Debian:13openssl3.5.5-1~deb13u2DEBIAN-CVE-2026-28388
Debian:14openssl3.6.2-1DEBIAN-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSedk2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSedk2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:25.10edk2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSedk2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:26.10edk2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSedk2-hweno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:26.10edk2-hweno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSopenssl3.0.2-0ubuntu1.23UBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSopenssl3.0.13-0ubuntu3.9UBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:25.10openssl3.5.3-1ubuntu3.3UBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSopenssl3.5.5-1ubuntu3UBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388
Ubuntu:26.10openssl3.5.5-1ubuntu3UBUNTU-CVE-2026-28388

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
OpenSSL OpenSSL 3.6.0 – before 3.6.23.5.0 – before 3.5.63.4.0 – before 3.4.53.3.0 – before 3.3.73.0.0 – before 3.0.201.1.1 – before 1.1.1zg1.0.2 – before 1.0.2zp

Weakness: CWE-476 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References