GHSA-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 — openssl-src
HIGHGHSA-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.4) CWE-843 vulnerability in openssl-src. EPSS puts its 30-day exploitation probability at 59.5% (99th percentile). A fix is available for openssl-src — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Vulnerable OpenSSL included in cryptography wheels
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5.
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-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 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 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% 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-src🐍cryptographyReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io, PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
There is a type confusion vulnerability relating to X.400 address processing inside an X.509 GeneralName. X.400 addresses were parsed as an ASN1_STRING but the public structure definition for GENERAL_NAME incorrectly specified the type of the x400Address field as ASN1_TYPE. This field is subsequently interpreted by the OpenSSL function GENERAL_NAME_cmp as an ASN1_TYPE rather than an ASN1_STRING.
When CRL checking is enabled (i.e. the application sets the X509_V_FLAG_CRL_CHECK flag), this vulnerability may allow an attacker to pass arbitrary pointers to a memcmp call, enabling them to read memory contents or enact a denial of service. In most cases, the attack requires the attacker to provide both the certificate chain and CRL, neither of which need to have a valid signature. If the attacker only controls one of these inputs, the other input must already contain an X.400 address as a CRL distribution point, which is uncommon. As such, this vulnerability is most likely to only affect applications which have implemented their own functionality for retrieving CRLs over a network.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | openssl-src | all versions | 111.25.0cargo update -p openssl-src --precise 111.25.0 |
| 🦀crates.io | openssl-src | ≥ 300.0.0&&< 300.0.12 | 300.0.12cargo update -p openssl-src --precise 300.0.12 |
| 🐍PyPI | cryptography | ≥ 0.8.1&&< 39.0.1 | 39.0.1pip install --upgrade 'cryptography==39.0.1' |
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 111.25.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 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-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5. 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.
For shim in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 & 9, is not affected as shim doesn't support any CRL processing.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| JBoss Core Services for RHEL 8 | jbcs-httpd24-openssl-1:1.1.1k-14.el8jbcs | RHSA-2023:3354 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Extended Lifecycle Support | openssl-0:1.0.1e-61.el6_10 | RHSA-2023:1438 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | openssl-1:1.0.2k-26.el7_9 | RHSA-2023:1335 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.7 Advanced Update Support | openssl-1:1.0.2k-21.el7_7.1 | RHSA-2024:5136 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | edk2-0:20220126gitbb1bba3d77-4.el8 | RHSA-2023:2932 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | compat-openssl10-1:1.0.2o-4.el8_10.1 | RHSA-2025:7895 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | openssl-1:1.1.1k-9.el8_7 | RHSA-2023:1405 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 Update Services for SAP Solutions | openssl-1:1.1.1c-6.el8_1 | RHSA-2023:1437 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-x4qr-2fvf-3mr5 across crates.io, PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.