CVE-2021-3450
HighCVSS 7.4Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Very high risk97th percentile - higher than 97% of all known CVEs
Summary
An error in the implementation of an additional security check in OpenSSL (the X509_V_FLAG_X509_STRICT flag) causes the result of a previous check confirming valid CA certificates in the chain to be overwritten. This effectively bypasses the check that non-CA certificates must not be able to issue other certificates. OpenSSL versions 1.1.1h through 1.1.1j are affected.
Risk Assessment
An application that explicitly sets the X509_V_FLAG_X509_STRICT flag and either does not set a purpose for certificate verification or overrides the default purpose may accept an invalid certificate chain. This can lead to bypassing trust checks and potential impersonation of a trusted certificate.
Recommendation
Upgrade OpenSSL to version 1.1.1k or later. If upgrading is not possible, ensure the application sets an appropriate certificate verification purpose, which mitigates the impact of this vulnerability.
Other vulnerabilities in OpenSSL
See all- CVE-2016-8610High
A denial of service flaw was found in OpenSSL 0.9.8, 1.0.1, 1.0.2 through 1.0.2h, and 1.1.0 in the way the TLS/SSL protocol defined processing of ALERT packets during a connection handshake. A remote attacker could use this flaw to make a TLS/SSL server consume an excessive amount of CPU and fail to accept connections from other clients.
- CVE-2017-3731High
CVE-2017-3731 affects SSL/TLS servers and clients running on 32-bit hosts that may crash due to an out-of-bounds read caused by a truncated packet. For OpenSSL 1.1.0, the crash can be triggered using the CHACHA20/POLY1305 cipher, and for OpenSSL 1.0.2 using RC4-MD5.
- CVE-2017-3730High
In OpenSSL 1.1.0 before 1.1.0d, a malicious server can supply bad parameters for a DHE or ECDHE key exchange, leading to the client attempting to dereference a NULL pointer, resulting in a client crash.
- CVE-2016-7054High
In OpenSSL 1.1.0 before 1.1.0c, TLS connections using *-CHACHA20-POLY1305 ciphersuites are susceptible to a DoS attack by corrupting larger payloads. This can result in an OpenSSL crash.
- CVE-2016-7052High
OpenSSL 1.0.2i has a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to cause application crashes by triggering a CRL operation, leading to a NULL pointer dereference.
- CVE-2016-6305High
The ssl3_read_bytes function in OpenSSL 1.1.0 before version 1.1.0a allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by triggering a zero-length record in an SSL_peek call.
- CVE-2016-6304High
Multiple memory leaks in t1_lib.c in OpenSSL before 1.0.1u, 1.0.2 before 1.0.2i, and 1.1.0 before 1.1.0a allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via large OCSP Status Request extensions.
- CVE-2016-6302High
The tls_decrypt_ticket function in OpenSSL before 1.1.0 does not consider the HMAC size during validation of the ticket length, allowing remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a ticket that is too short.
- CVE-2016-2179High
The DTLS implementation in OpenSSL before 1.1.0 does not properly restrict the lifetime of queue entries associated with unused out-of-order messages. This allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by maintaining many crafted DTLS sessions simultaneously.
- CVE-2016-2176High
The X509_NAME_oneline function in OpenSSL before 1.0.1t and 1.0.2 before 1.0.2h allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information from process stack memory or cause a denial of service (buffer over-read) via crafted EBCDIC ASN.1 data.
Original NVD description (English source)
The X509_V_FLAG_X509_STRICT flag enables additional security checks of the certificates present in a certificate chain. It is not set by default. Starting from OpenSSL version 1.1.1h a check to disallow certificates in the chain that have explicitly encoded elliptic curve parameters was added as an additional strict check. An error in the implementation of this check meant that the result of a previous check to confirm that certificates in the chain are valid CA certificates was overwritten. This effectively bypasses the check that non-CA certificates must not be able to issue other certificates. If a "purpose" has been configured then there is a subsequent opportunity for checks that the certificate is a valid CA. All of the named "purpose" values implemented in libcrypto perform this check. Therefore, where a purpose is set the certificate chain will still be rejected even when the strict flag has been used. A purpose is set by default in libssl client and server certificate verification routines, but it can be overridden or removed by an application. In order to be affected, an application must explicitly set the X509_V_FLAG_X509_STRICT verification flag and either not set a purpose for the certificate verification or, in the case of TLS client or server applications, override the default purpose. OpenSSL versions 1.1.1h and newer are affected by this issue. Users of these versions should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.1.1k. OpenSSL 1.0.2 is not impacted by this issue. Fixed in OpenSSL 1.1.1k (Affected 1.1.1h-1.1.1j).
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS