CVE-2026-22796
January 27, 2026
Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the signature
verification of signed PKCS#7 data where an ASN1_TYPE union member is
accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL
pointer dereference when processing malformed PKCS#7 data.
Impact summary: An application performing signature verification of PKCS#7
data or calling directly the PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() function can be
caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in
a Denial of Service.
The function PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() accesses the message digest attribute
value without validating its type. When the type is not V_ASN1_OCTET_STRING,
this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1_TYPE union, causing
a crash.
Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed
signed PKCS#7 to an application that verifies it. The impact of the
exploit is just a Denial of Service, the PKCS7 API is legacy and applications
should be using the CMS API instead. For these reasons the issue was
assessed as Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue,
as the PKCS#7 parsing implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module
boundary.
OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
Affected Packages
https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.5.0 <openssl-3.5.5Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.5.5https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =openssl-3.6.0 <openssl-3.6.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.6.1https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.0.0 <openssl-3.0.19Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.0.19https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.3.0 <openssl-3.3.6Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.3.6https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.0.0 <openssl-3.0.19Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.0.19https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.0.0 <openssl-3.0.19Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.0.19https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =openssl-3.6.0 <openssl-3.6.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.6.1https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.5.0 <openssl-3.5.5Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.5.5https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.5.0 <openssl-3.5.5Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.5.5https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.4.0 <openssl-3.4.4Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.4.4https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.4.0 <openssl-3.4.4Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.4.4https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.3.0 <openssl-3.3.6Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.3.6https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.0.0 <openssl-3.0.19Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.0.19https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =openssl-3.6.0 <openssl-3.6.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.6.1https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.5.0 <openssl-3.5.5Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.5.5Related Resources (6)
Do you need more information?
Contact UsCVSS v4
Base Score:
6.9
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Attack Requirements
NONE
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Vulnerable System Confidentiality
NONE
Vulnerable System Integrity
NONE
Vulnerable System Availability
LOW
Subsequent System Confidentiality
NONE
Subsequent System Integrity
NONE
Subsequent System Availability
NONE
CVSS v3
Base Score:
5.3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
Weakness Type (CWE)
Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
EPSS
Base Score:
0.11