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CRITICAL severity

CVE-2018-20997 — openssl

CRITICALFix: sfackler/rust-openssl#942

CVE-2018-20997 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Use After Free vulnerability in openssl. A fix is available for openssl — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Use after free in openssl

Also known asGHSA-xjxc-vfw2-cg96RUSTSEC-2018-0010
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 9, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs77th percentile — riskier than 77% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.75%1.50%2.24%0.5%1.7%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2018-20997 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected
🦀openssl

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

An issue was discovered in the openssl crate before 0.10.9 for Rust. A use-after-free occurs in CMS Signing.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🦀crates.ioopenssl≥ 0.10.8&&< 0.10.90.10.9cargo update -p openssl --precise 0.10.9

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
rust-opensslrust-openssl_project
< 0.10.9
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for openssl, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update openssl to 0.10.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2018-20997 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.

Frequently Asked Questions

An issue was discovered in the openssl crate before 0.10.9 for Rust. A use-after-free occurs in CMS Signing.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2018-20997: openssl — Fixed in 0.10.9