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CVE-2022-4450

Double free after calling PEM_read_bio_ex

High7.5EPSS 28.6%
Published
Updated
Reserved
Assigned by
openssl

Description

The function PEM_read_bio_ex() reads a PEM file from a BIO and parses and decodes the "name" (e.g. "CERTIFICATE"), any header data and the payload data. If the function succeeds then the "name_out", "header" and "data" arguments are populated with pointers to buffers containing the relevant decoded data. The caller is responsible for freeing those buffers. It is possible to construct a PEM file that results in 0 bytes of payload data. In this case PEM_read_bio_ex() will return a failure code but will populate the header argument with a pointer to a buffer that has already been freed. If the caller also frees this buffer then a double free will occur. This will most likely lead to a crash. This could be exploited by an attacker who has the ability to supply malicious PEM files for parsing to achieve a denial of service attack. The functions PEM_read_bio() and PEM_read() are simple wrappers around PEM_read_bio_ex() and therefore these functions are also directly affected. These functions are also called indirectly by a number of other OpenSSL functions including PEM_X509_INFO_read_bio_ex() and SSL_CTX_use_serverinfo_file() which are also vulnerable. Some OpenSSL internal uses of these functions are not vulnerable because the caller does not free the header argument if PEM_read_bio_ex() returns a failure code. These locations include the PEM_read_bio_TYPE() functions as well as the decoders introduced in OpenSSL 3.0. The OpenSSL asn1parse command line application is also impacted by this issue.

Timeline

  1. ID reserved

    By openssl

  2. · 57 days later

    Published

  3. · 4 years later

    Record updated

Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.

Scores

CVSS scores of CVE-2022-4450, by who scored it
Scored byCVSSScoreVector
CISA-ADPADP (enrichment)3.1High7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVDNVD · Modified3.1High7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
28.6% · top 1.9% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
CISA SSVC
Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
Loading the EPSS history…

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.

Weakness

Affected products

  • OpenSSL · OpenSSL

    • affected 3.0.0 – < 3.0.8
    • affected 1.1.1 – < 1.1.1t

Affected packages

From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.

References (16)

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

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Record last updated .