libressl, openssl and 1 more products — security advisory
The X.509 GeneralName type is a generic type for representing different types of names. One of those name types is known as EDIPartyName. OpenSSL provides a function GENERAL_NAME_cmp which compares different instances of a GENERAL_NAME to see if they are equal or not. This function behaves incorrectly when both GENERAL_NAMEs contain an EDIPARTYNAME. A NULL pointer dereference and a crash may occur leading to a possible denial of service attack. OpenSSL itself uses the GENERAL_NAME_cmp function for two purposes: 1) Comparing CRL distribution point names between an available CRL and a CRL distribution point embedded in an X509 certificate 2) When verifying that a timestamp response token signer matches the timestamp authority name (exposed via the API functions TS_RESP_verify_response and TS_RESP_verify_token) If an attacker can control both items being compared then that attacker could trigger a crash. For example if the attacker can trick a client or server into checking a malicious certificate against a malicious CRL then this may occur. Note that some applications automatically download CRLs based on a URL embedded in a certificate. This checking happens prior to the signatures on the certificate and CRL being verified. OpenSSL's s_server, s_client and verify tools have support for the "-crl_download" option which implements automatic CRL downloading and this attack has been demonstrated to work against those tools. Note that an unrelated bug means that affected versions of
- Products
- libressl, openssl, openssl3
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 1.1.1i-r0, 3.1.5-r0
- CVEs
- CVE-2020-1971
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 12:05 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
The X.509 GeneralName type is a generic type for representing different types of names. One of those name types is known as EDIPartyName. OpenSSL provides a function GENERAL_NAME_cmp which compares different instances of a GENERAL_NAME to see if they are equal or not. This function behaves incorrectly when both GENERAL_NAMEs contain an EDIPARTYNAME. A NULL pointer dereference and a crash may occur leading to a possible denial of service attack. OpenSSL itself uses the GENERAL_NAME_cmp function for two purposes: 1) Comparing CRL distribution point names between an available CRL and a CRL distribution point embedded in an X509 certificate 2) When verifying that a timestamp response token signer matches the timestamp authority name (exposed via the API functions TS_RESP_verify_response and TS_RESP_verify_token) If an attacker can control both items being compared then that attacker could trigger a crash. For example if the attacker can trick a client or server into checking a malicious certificate against a malicious CRL then this may occur. Note that some applications automatically download CRLs based on a URL embedded in a certificate. This checking happens prior to the signatures on the certificate and CRL being verified. OpenSSL's s_server, s_client and verify tools have support for the "-crl_download" option which implements automatic CRL downloading and this attack has been demonstrated to work against those tools. Note that an unrelated bug means that affected versions of
osv:ALPINE-CVE-2020-1971
libressl
Fixed versions: 3.1.5-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl3
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
openssl3
Fixed versions: 1.1.1i-r0
Complete source record
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"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/ALPINE-CVE-2020-1971",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
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"title": "ALPINE-CVE-2020-1971",
"summary": "The X.509 GeneralName type is a generic type for representing different types of names. One of those name types is known as EDIPartyName. OpenSSL provides a function GENERAL_NAME_cmp which compares different instances of a GENERAL_NAME to see if they are equal or not. This function behaves incorrectly when both GENERAL_NAMEs contain an EDIPARTYNAME. A NULL pointer dereference and a crash may occur leading to a possible denial of service attack. OpenSSL itself uses the GENERAL_NAME_cmp function for two purposes: 1) Comparing CRL distribution point names between an available CRL and a CRL distribution point embedded in an X509 certificate 2) When verifying that a timestamp response token signer matches the timestamp authority name (exposed via the API functions TS_RESP_verify_response and TS_RESP_verify_token) If an attacker can control both items being compared then that attacker could trigger a crash. For example if the attacker can trick a client or server into checking a malicious certificate against a malicious CRL then this may occur. Note that some applications automatically download CRLs based on a URL embedded in a certificate. This checking happens prior to the signatures on the certificate and CRL being verified. OpenSSL's s_server, s_client and verify tools have support for the \"-crl_download\" option which implements automatic CRL downloading and this attack has been demonstrated to work against those tools. Note that an unrelated bug means that affected versions of",
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],
"modified": "2026-10-26T11:17:55.146674365Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2020-1971"
],
"references": [
"https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-1971"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2020-1971",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 450499,
"published_at": "2020-12-08T16:15:11.73+00:00"
}