{"id":"CVE-2022-4450","aliases":["GHSA-v5w6-wcm8-jm4q","RUSTSEC-2023-0010"],"url":"https://o3.security/vulnerability/CVE-2022-4450","summary":"Double free after calling PEM_read_bio_ex","details":"The function PEM_read_bio_ex() reads a PEM file from a BIO and parses and\ndecodes the \"name\" (e.g. \"CERTIFICATE\"), any header data and the payload data.\nIf the function succeeds then the \"name_out\", \"header\" and \"data\" arguments are\npopulated with pointers to buffers containing the relevant decoded data. The\ncaller is responsible for freeing those buffers. It is possible to construct a\nPEM file that results in 0 bytes of payload data. In this case PEM_read_bio_ex()\nwill return a failure code but will populate the header argument with a pointer\nto a buffer that has already been freed. If the caller also frees this buffer\nthen a double free will occur. This will most likely lead to a crash. This\ncould be exploited by an attacker who has the ability to supply malicious PEM\nfiles for parsing to achieve a denial of service attack.\n\nThe functions PEM_read_bio() and PEM_read() are simple wrappers around\nPEM_read_bio_ex() and therefore these functions are also directly affected.\n\nThese functions are also called indirectly by a number of other OpenSSL\nfunctions including PEM_X509_INFO_read_bio_ex() and\nSSL_CTX_use_serverinfo_file() which are also vulnerable. Some OpenSSL internal\nuses of these functions are not vulnerable because the caller does not free the\nheader argument if PEM_read_bio_ex() returns a failure code. These locations\ninclude the PEM_read_bio_TYPE() functions as well as the decoders introduced in\nOpenSSL 3.0.\n\nThe OpenSSL asn1parse command line application is also impacted by this issue.","published":"2023-02-08T19:04:04.874Z","modified":"2026-07-22T02:08:38.010563Z","cvss":{"score":7.5,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"},"epss":null,"cisaKev":null,"exploitsKnown":0,"affectedPackages":[{"ecosystem":"crates.io","name":"openssl-src","fixedVersion":"111.25.0"},{"ecosystem":"crates.io","name":"openssl-src","fixedVersion":"300.0.12"}],"fix":null,"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2023-0003"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2022/4xxx/CVE-2022-4450.json"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-4450"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202402-08"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20230207.txt"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=63bcf189be73a9cc1264059bed6f57974be74a83"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=bbcf509bd046b34cca19c766bbddc31683d0858b"}],"provenance":{"sources":["OSV.dev","FIRST.org (EPSS)"],"lastVerified":"2026-07-22T02:08:38.010563Z"}}