GHSA-xp3w-r5p5-63rr — openssl
GHSA-xp3w-r5p5-63rr is a Improper Input Validation vulnerability in openssl. A fix is available for openssl — see the affected versions and patch details below.
rust-openssl has undefined behavior in X509Ref::ocsp_responders for certificates with non-UTF-8 OCSP URLs
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-xp3w-r5p5-63rr.
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.
Real-World Exposure
opensslReal-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
rust-openssl provides OpenSSL bindings for the Rust programming language. From 0.9.7 to before 0.10.79, X509Ref::ocsp_responders returns OCSP responder URLs from a certificate's AIA extension as OpensslString, whose Deref<Target = str> wraps the raw bytes with str::from_utf8_unchecked. OpenSSL does not enforce that the underlying IA5String is ASCII, so a certificate with non-UTF-8 bytes in its OCSP accessLocation causes safe Rust code to construct a &str that violates the UTF-8 invariant — resulting in undefined behavior. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.10.79.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | openssl | ≥ 0.9.7&&< 0.10.79 | 0.10.79cargo update -p openssl --precise 0.10.79 |
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 0.10.79 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xp3w-r5p5-63rr 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-xp3w-r5p5-63rr can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-xp3w-r5p5-63rr. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-xp3w-r5p5-63rr in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-xp3w-r5p5-63rr across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.