openssl — security advisory
Issue summary: Checking excessively long invalid RSA public keys may take a long time. Impact summary: Applications that use the function EVP_PKEY_public_check() to check RSA public keys may experience long delays. Where the key that is being checked has been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service. When function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is called on RSA public keys, a computation is done to confirm that the RSA modulus, n, is composite. For valid RSA keys, n is a product of two or more large primes and this computation completes quickly. However, if n is an overly large prime, then this computation would take a long time. An application that calls EVP_PKEY_public_check() and supplies an RSA key obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack. The function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is not called from other OpenSSL functions however it is called from the OpenSSL pkey command line application. For that reason that application is also vulnerable if used with the '-pubin' and '-check' options on untrusted data. The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue. The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are affected by this issue.
- Products
- openssl
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 3.0.12-r3, 3.1.4-r4
- CVEs
- CVE-2023-6237
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 15:07 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
Issue summary: Checking excessively long invalid RSA public keys may take a long time. Impact summary: Applications that use the function EVP_PKEY_public_check() to check RSA public keys may experience long delays. Where the key that is being checked has been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service. When function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is called on RSA public keys, a computation is done to confirm that the RSA modulus, n, is composite. For valid RSA keys, n is a product of two or more large primes and this computation completes quickly. However, if n is an overly large prime, then this computation would take a long time. An application that calls EVP_PKEY_public_check() and supplies an RSA key obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack. The function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is not called from other OpenSSL functions however it is called from the OpenSSL pkey command line application. For that reason that application is also vulnerable if used with the '-pubin' and '-check' options on untrusted data. The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue. The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are affected by this issue.
osv:ALPINE-CVE-2023-6237
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.0.12-r3
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
openssl
Fixed versions: 3.1.4-r4
Complete source record
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"id": "f6e3b2590a23243061bf93ae6ea92461597b9cbc99e1a8319de9a6c7be4c6397",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/ALPINE-CVE-2023-6237",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "ALPINE-CVE-2023-6237",
"summary": "Issue summary: Checking excessively long invalid RSA public keys may take a long time. Impact summary: Applications that use the function EVP_PKEY_public_check() to check RSA public keys may experience long delays. Where the key that is being checked has been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service. When function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is called on RSA public keys, a computation is done to confirm that the RSA modulus, n, is composite. For valid RSA keys, n is a product of two or more large primes and this computation completes quickly. However, if n is an overly large prime, then this computation would take a long time. An application that calls EVP_PKEY_public_check() and supplies an RSA key obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack. The function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is not called from other OpenSSL functions however it is called from the OpenSSL pkey command line application. For that reason that application is also vulnerable if used with the '-pubin' and '-check' options on untrusted data. The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue. The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are affected by this issue.",
"evidence": "osv:ALPINE-CVE-2023-6237",
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"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
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"aliases": [
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],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
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}
],
"modified": "2026-10-26T17:17:58.670583192Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2023-6237"
],
"references": [
"https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-6237"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2023-6237",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 454591,
"published_at": "2024-04-25T07:15:45.27+00:00"
}