CVE-2022-2097 — openssl-src
HIGHCVE-2022-2097 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Broken Cryptographic Algorithm vulnerability in openssl-src. A fix is available for openssl-src — see the affected versions and patch details below.
AES OCB fails to encrypt some bytes
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-2097.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2022-2097 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,166 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
openssl-src🦀openssl-srcReal-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
AES OCB mode for 32-bit x86 platforms using the AES-NI assembly optimised implementation will not encrypt the entirety of the data under some circumstances. This could reveal sixteen bytes of data that was preexisting in the memory that wasn't written. In the special case of "in place" encryption, sixteen bytes of the plaintext would be revealed. Since OpenSSL does not support OCB based cipher suites for TLS and DTLS, they are both unaffected. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.5 (Affected 3.0.0-3.0.4). Fixed in OpenSSL 1.1.1q (Affected 1.1.1-1.1.1p).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | openssl-src | all versions | 111.22.0cargo update -p openssl-src --precise 111.22.0 |
| 🦀crates.io | openssl-src | ≥ 300.0.0&&< 300.0.9 | 300.0.9cargo update -p openssl-src --precise 300.0.9 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for openssl-src, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update openssl-src to 111.22.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-2097 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2022-2097 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-2097. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ship OpenSSL 1.0 which does not contain the incorrect assembly code (introduced upstream with commit bd30091). Similarly, the versions of `shim` as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9 are not affected by this issue as they bundle openssl-1.0.2j.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | openssl-1:1.1.1k-7.el8_6 | RHSA-2022:5818 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | openssl-1:3.0.1-41.el9_0 | RHSA-2022:6224 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-2097 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-2097 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.