GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in openssl-src. 14 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for openssl-src — see the affected versions and patch details below.
X.509 Email Address 4-byte Buffer Overflow
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 GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23.
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
GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE sits: patch-first territory.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 376,715 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
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
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, specifically in name constraint checking. Note that this occurs after certificate chain signature verification and requires either a CA to have signed the malicious certificate or for the application to continue certificate verification despite failure to construct a path to a trusted issuer. An attacker can craft a malicious email address to overflow four attacker-controlled bytes on the stack. This buffer overflow could result in a crash (causing a denial of service) or potentially remote code execution.
Many platforms implement stack overflow protections which would mitigate against the risk of remote code execution. The risk may be further mitigated based on stack layout for any given platform/compiler.
Pre-announcements of CVE-2022-3602 described this issue as CRITICAL. Further analysis based on some of the mitigating factors described above have led this to be downgraded to HIGH. Users are still encouraged to upgrade to a new version as soon as possible.
In a TLS client, this can be triggered by connecting to a malicious server. In a TLS server, this can be triggered if the server requests client authentication and a malicious client connects.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | openssl-src | ≥ 300.0.0&&< 300.0.11 | 300.0.11cargo update -p openssl-src --precise 300.0.11 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
A buffer overrun can be triggered in X.509 certificate verification, spe…
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 300.0.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23 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 GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23. 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.
As per upstream, the most common situation where this can be triggered is when a server requests client authentication after a malicious client connects. A client connecting to a malicious server is also believed to be vulnerable in the same manner. Only OpenSSL versions 3.0.0 to 3.0.6 are vulnerable to this…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | openssl-1:3.0.1-43.el9_0 | RHSA-2022:7288 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | rhel9/openssl:9.0-25 | RHSA-2022:7384 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-8rwr-x37p-mx23 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.