CVE-2026-69249python-cryptography: Duplicate self-signed intermediates can cause exponential path-building
- 8.7HighCVSS base score
- 0.26%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 82% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
python-cryptography is a package designed to expose cryptographic primitives and recipes to Python developers. In versions 42.0.0 through 48.0.0, when resolving invalid certificate chains that include duplicate copies of self-signed certificates, the processing recursively invokes the same candidate, leading to an exponential blowup. Although the limitation that the chain depth cannot exceed a specified maximum depth prevents unbounded recursion and guarantees termination, an attacker-controlled certificate chain can lead the processing to easily take more than 5s to reject in testing. This amplification could form the basis for a resource exhaustion denial of service attack. The core issue arises in the recursive nature of build_chain_inner, which does not de-duplicate against previously analyzed candidates. As the correctness of validation is not affected, the integrity of a system cannot be compromised through this vector, only its availability. This issue is fixed in 49.0.0.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
- https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/security/advisories/GHSA-jwv3-5hgf-82ww (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
Published
- 32 days later
· 32 days 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | High8.7 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| NVDNVD · Awaiting Analysis | 4.0 | High8.7 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.26% · top 82% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.7.
Affected products
- affected >= 42.0.0, < 49.0.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- PyPIcryptographyGHSA-jwv3-5hgf-82ww (opens in a new tab)
References
References5
- https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/security/advisories/GHSA-jwv3-5hgf-82ww (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
- https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/pull/14960 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/commit/3763aa79b (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/commit/4a12cf49675a184e47f912b00b04f3a629283582 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/cryptography/PYSEC-2026-3553.yaml (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
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-2026-52450 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-jwv3-5hgf-82ww (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-2026-69249)Record last updated .