GHSA-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Buffer Overflow vulnerability in openssl. A fix is available for openssl — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ruby OpenSSL DoS Vulnerability
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-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p 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
opensslReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The decode method in the OpenSSL::ASN1 module in Ruby before 2.2.8, 2.3.x before 2.3.5, and 2.4.x through 2.4.1 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (interpreter crash) via a crafted string. The openssl gem that contains this module is patched in version 2.0.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | openssl | all versions | 2.0.0bundle update openssl --conservative |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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.
Fix
Update openssl to 2.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p 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-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p. 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.
This issue did not affect the versions of ruby as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, and the versions of rh-ruby24-ruby. This issue affects the versions of ruby as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and the versions of rh-ruby22-ruby and rh-ruby23-ruby as shipped with Red Hat Software Collections 3.…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | ruby-0:2.0.0.648-33.el7_4 | RHSA-2018:0378 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | rh-ruby22-ruby-0:2.2.9-19.el6 | RHSA-2018:0583 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | rh-ruby23-ruby-0:2.3.6-67.el6 | RHSA-2018:0585 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-v6rp-3r3v-hf4p across RubyGems dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.