SEPTEMBER 17, 2026
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Case File

CVE-2026-63073

CRITICAL · CVSS 9.8 EPSS 0.93% Public Exploit

Source: NVD + CISA KEV + EPSS · Published 2026-08-25 · Last synced 2026-09-17

CyberRota Analysis

AI-Generated

OpenSSL is vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack due to improper handling of sender distinguished names in CMP response validation, which can allow a malicious or intercepted CMP endpoint to crash a client. This issue arises when the sender's distinguished name is used as a format string in the error handling function, leading to potential exploitation through crafted input. Organizations utilizing OpenSSL for CMP client implementations, especially those enforcing expected senders or pinned certificates, should prioritize addressing this vulnerability to mitigate service disruptions.

Public Exploit Signal

A public exploit, PoC, GitHub repository or Metasploit reference was detected for this CVE.

Detected Signals
remote code execution code execution

Note: these links are listed for security research and verification purposes only.

CVE
CVE-2026-63073
Severity
CRITICAL
CVSS
9.8
EPSS
0.93%
OpenSSL

Original NVD Description

Issue summary: OpenSSL CMP response validation passed an unexpected response sender distinguished name directly as the format string to `ERR_raise_data()`. Impact summary: A malicious or intercepted CMP endpoint can crash a CMP client that enforces an expected sender or uses a pinned server certificate whose subject becomes the default expected sender. CWE: CWE-134 (Use of Externally-Controlled Format String) Description: When validating a received CMP message, ossl_cmp_msg_check_update() converts the peer-supplied sender distinguished name with X509_NAME_oneline() and passes it directly as the format argument to ERR_raise_data(). Percent characters survive the conversion, so a sender DN such as "CN=%s%n" reaches BIO_vsnprintf() as an attacker-controlled format string with no matching variadic arguments. This path is only reached when the caller configures an expected sender or pins a server certificate, which is the normal configuration for a CMP client validating server responses. Since the attacker controls the format string but none of the variadic arguments, such specifiers as %s and %n dereference or write through unrelated stack contents and crash the client. The reliable consequence is a denial of service, when the response comes from a malicious or intercepted CMP endpoint. There is no controlled memory write, arbitrary-address read, or reliable path to remote code execution. FIPS impact: no No FIPS modules are affected by this issue, as the CMP protocol implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

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