NULL Dereference in Certificate Verification with OCSP Checking
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 fixed, 10 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-476.
Summary
Issue summary: When a partial-chain certificate verification is enabled together with OCSP response checking for the whole chain, a NULL dereference will happen if the verified chain does not have a self-signed trusted anchor, crashing the process. Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to a Denial of Service for an application. When performing OCSP response checking for certificates in the verification chain, the code always tries to access the next certificate as the issuer. There is a check for a self-signed certificate. However with the partial chain verification enabled when the chain does not have a self-signed trusted anchor, the issuer will be NULL for the last certificate in the chain. A NULL pointer dereference then happens. This issue affects only applications which enable both OCSP verification of the certificate chain (X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK_ALL) and partial chain verification (X509_V_FLAG_PARTIAL_CHAIN) in the certificate verification. Both flags are disabled by default. For that reason, we have assigned Low severity to the issue. No FIPS modules are affected by this issue as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenSSL | OpenSSL | 4.0.0 to before 4.0.1; 3.6.0 to before 3.6.3 | 4.0.1, 3.6.3 | Patch available | CNA |
- OpenSSL VendorOpenSSL Affected 4.0.0 to before 4.0.1; 3.6.0 to before 3.6.3 Fixed in 4.0.1, 3.6.3 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA OpenSSL (OpenSSL) Fixed in 4.0.1, 3.6.3
Red Hat 8 advisories
- RHSA-2026:67551 Released 2026-09-15 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images bootupd-0.3.2-1.hum1@aarch64, bootupd-0.3.2-1.hum1@x86_64, rust-bootupd-0.3.2-1.hum1@src
- RHSA-2026:62790 Released 2026-09-02 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images ruby3.4-3.4.10-31.7.hum1@aarch64, ruby3.4-3.4.10-31.7.hum1@src, ruby3.4-3.4.10-31.7.hum1@x86_64 +10
- RHSA-2026:62563 Released 2026-09-02 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update
- Red Hat Hardened Images ruby4.0-4.0.6-37.3.hum1@aarch64, ruby4.0-4.0.6-37.3.hum1@src, ruby4.0-4.0.6-37.3.hum1@x86_64 +46
Show 5 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2026:62562 Released 2026-09-02 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update
- Red Hat Hardened Images ruby3.3-3.3.10-23.6.hum1@aarch64, ruby3.3-3.3.10-23.6.hum1@src, ruby3.3-3.3.10-23.6.hum1@x86_64 +46
- RHSA-2026:59641 Released 2026-08-25 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images openssl-1:3.5.8-0.1.hum1@aarch64, openssl-1:3.5.8-0.1.hum1@src, openssl-1:3.5.8-0.1.hum1@x86_64 +12
- RHSA-2026:59635 Released 2026-08-25 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images openssl3-1:3.5.8-0.1.hum1@src, openssl3-devel-1:3.5.8-0.1.hum1@aarch64, openssl3-devel-1:3.5.8-0.1.hum1@x86_64 +4
- RHSA-2026:55543 Released 2026-08-17 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images python-cryptography-50.0.0-1.hum1@src, python3-cryptography-50.0.0-1.hum1@aarch64, python3-cryptography-50.0.0-1.hum1@x86_64
- RHSA-2026:42825 Released 2026-07-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
- Red Hat Hardened Images chunkah-0.6.0-3.hum1@aarch64, chunkah-0.6.0-3.hum1@src, chunkah-0.6.0-3.hum1@x86_64
Fixed in the same release
Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.
- Advisory ·
OpenSSL — openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260609.txt
18 records Highest priority Priority MEDIUM 6 MEDIUM, 12 LOW
Other records, highest priority first
- TI-2026-33226 Heap Use-After-Free in the PKCS7_verify() FunctionPriority MEDIUM 47
- TI-2026-26479 CMS AuthEnvelopedData Processing May Accept Forged MessagesPriority MEDIUM 47
- TI-2026-30987 NULL Pointer Dereference in QUIC Server Initial Packet HandlingPriority MEDIUM 41
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat JBoss Core Services | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server 6 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat JBoss Web Server 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | — |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Hardened Images | Fixed | RHSA-2026:42825, RHSA-2026:55543, RHSA-2026:59635, RHSA-2026:59641, RHSA-2026:62562, RHSA-2026:62563, RHSA-2026:62790, RHSA-2026:67551 |
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Hardened Images
- Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI)
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-42765
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-vm8w-j6fw-jc7r
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Advisory 1
More Openssl vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-01915 The c_rehash script allows command injection CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2021-02645 SM2 Decryption Buffer Overflow CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2009-03392 The TLS protocol, and the SSL protocol 3.0 and possibly earlier, as used in Microsoft… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2022-01176 The c_rehash script allows command injection CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-00154 The (1) TLS and (2) DTLS implementations in OpenSSL 1.0.1 before 1.0.1g do not properly… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2025-14107 Stack buffer overflow in CMS (Auth)EnvelopedData parsing CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-42765 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-42765 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-vm8w-j6fw-jc7r · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-42765 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences