CVE-2023-6237Excessive time spent checking invalid RSA public keys
- 5.9MediumCVSS base score
- 2.5%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 15% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
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.
Timeline
ID reserved
By openssl
- 5 months later
· 5 months later
Published
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CISA-ADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | Medium5.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Medium5.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 2.5% · top 15% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.9.
Affected products
References
References10
- OpenSSL Advisory (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_transferred
- 3.0.13 git commit (opens in a new tab)patchx_transferred
- 3.1.5 git commit (opens in a new tab)patchx_transferred
- 3.2.1 git commit (opens in a new tab)patchx_transferred
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/03/11/1 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240531-0007/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-265688.html (opens in a new tab)
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-331112.html (opens in a new tab)
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-915275.html (opens in a new tab)
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-769027.html (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-58483 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-6237)Record last updated .