CVE-2021-4044
Invalid handling of X509_verify_cert() internal errors in libssl
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- openssl
Description
Internally libssl in OpenSSL calls X509_verify_cert() on the client side to verify a certificate supplied by a server. That function may return a negative return value to indicate an internal error (for example out of memory). Such a negative return value is mishandled by OpenSSL and will cause an IO function (such as SSL_connect() or SSL_do_handshake()) to not indicate success and a subsequent call to SSL_get_error() to return the value SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY. This return value is only supposed to be returned by OpenSSL if the application has previously called SSL_CTX_set_cert_verify_callback(). Since most applications do not do this the SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY return value from SSL_get_error() will be totally unexpected and applications may not behave correctly as a result. The exact behaviour will depend on the application but it could result in crashes, infinite loops or other similar incorrect responses. This issue is made more serious in combination with a separate bug in OpenSSL 3.0 that will cause X509_verify_cert() to indicate an internal error when processing a certificate chain. This will occur where a certificate does not include the Subject Alternative Name extension but where a Certificate Authority has enforced name constraints. This issue can occur even with valid chains. By combining the two issues an attacker could induce incorrect, application dependent behaviour. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.1 (Affected 3.0.0).
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 50.1% · top 1.1% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Weakness
- Invalid error handling
- CWE-835 (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-835 and its CVEs
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- crates.ioopenssl-srcGHSA-mmjf-f5jw-w72q (opens in a new tab)
References (3)
- https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20211214.txt (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=758754966791c537ea95241438454aa86f91f256 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20211229-0003/ (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-mmjf-f5jw-w72q (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2021-4044)Record last updated .