embedded zero in cert name
SSL and TLS Server certificates contain one or more fields with server name or otherwise matching patterns. These strings are stored as content and length within the certificate, and thus there is no particular terminating character. curl's OpenSSL interfacing code did faulty assumptions about those names and patterns being null-terminated, allowing itself to be fooled in case a certificate would get a zero byte embedded into one of the name fields. To illustrate, a name that would show this vulnerability could look like: "example.com\0.haxx.se" This cert is thus made for "haxx.se" but curl would erroneously verify it with no complaints for "example.com". According to a recently published presentation, this kind of zero embedding has been proven to be possible with at least one CA.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2009-2417
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 09:54 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
SSL and TLS Server certificates contain one or more fields with server name or otherwise matching patterns. These strings are stored as content and length within the certificate, and thus there is no particular terminating character. curl's OpenSSL interfacing code did faulty assumptions about those names and patterns being null-terminated, allowing itself to be fooled in case a certificate would get a zero byte embedded into one of the name fields. To illustrate, a name that would show this vulnerability could look like: "example.com\0.haxx.se" This cert is thus made for "haxx.se" but curl would erroneously verify it with no complaints for "example.com". According to a recently published presentation, this kind of zero embedding has been proven to be possible with at least one CA.
osv:CURL-CVE-2009-2417
Complete source record
{
"id": "fb2991e494435e6f6cdce2422b1f6e99b1f830c4bd33382cfece132b8a51f2ea",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CURL-CVE-2009-2417",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "embedded zero in cert name",
"summary": "SSL and TLS Server certificates contain one or more fields with server name or otherwise matching patterns. These strings are stored as content and length within the certificate, and thus there is no particular terminating character. curl's OpenSSL interfacing code did faulty assumptions about those names and patterns being null-terminated, allowing itself to be fooled in case a certificate would get a zero byte embedded into one of the name fields. To illustrate, a name that would show this vulnerability could look like: \"example.com\\0.haxx.se\" This cert is thus made for \"haxx.se\" but curl would erroneously verify it with no complaints for \"example.com\". According to a recently published presentation, this kind of zero embedding has been proven to be possible with at least one CA.",
"evidence": "osv:CURL-CVE-2009-2417",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CURL-CVE-2009-2417",
"aliases": [
"CURL-CVE-2009-2417",
"CVE-2009-2417"
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "SEMVER",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "7.4"
},
{
"fixed": "7.19.6"
}
]
}
],
"versions": [
"7.19.5",
"7.19.4",
"7.19.3",
"7.19.2",
"7.19.1",
"7.19.0",
"7.18.2",
"7.18.1",
"7.18.0",
"7.17.1",
"7.17.0",
"7.16.4",
"7.16.3",
"7.16.2",
"7.16.1",
"7.16.0",
"7.15.5",
"7.15.4",
"7.15.3",
"7.15.2",
"7.15.1",
"7.15.0",
"7.14.1",
"7.14.0",
"7.13.2",
"7.13.1",
"7.13.0",
"7.12.3",
"7.12.2",
"7.12.1",
"7.12.0",
"7.11.2",
"7.11.1",
"7.11.0",
"7.10.8",
"7.10.7",
"7.10.6",
"7.10.5",
"7.10.4",
"7.10.3",
"7.10.2",
"7.10.1",
"7.10",
"7.9.8",
"7.9.7",
"7.9.6",
"7.9.5",
"7.9.4",
"7.9.3",
"7.9.2",
"7.9.1",
"7.9",
"7.8.1",
"7.8",
"7.7.3",
"7.7.2",
"7.7.1",
"7.7",
"7.6.1",
"7.6",
"7.5.2",
"7.5.1",
"7.5",
"7.4.2",
"7.4.1",
"7.4"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://curl.se/docs/CURL-CVE-2009-2417.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-25T09:30:05.367835055Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [],
"provider_metadata": {
"CWE": {
"id": "CWE-187",
"desc": "Partial String Comparison"
},
"URL": "https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2009-2417.json",
"www": "https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2009-2417.html",
"affects": "both",
"package": "curl",
"severity": "High",
"last_affected": "7.19.5"
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2009-2417",
"evidence": "/aliases"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/database_specific/severity"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 445232,
"published_at": "2009-08-12T08:00:00+00:00"
}