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Critical

Heap Use-After-Free in OpenSSL PKCS7_verify()

IdentifiersCVE-2026-45447CWE-416· Use After Free

CVE-2026-45447 is a high-severity heap use-after-free in OpenSSL's PKCS#7 signature verification path, specifically in PKCS7_verify(). When an application processes a specially crafted PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed message whose SignedData digestAlgorithms field is encoded as an empty ASN.1 SET, OpenSSL may incorrectly free a caller-owned BIO passed into PKCS7_verify(). If the calling application subsequently continues to use that BIO, commonly by later invoking BIO_free() on it, a use-after-free condition occurs. The flaw affects applications using OpenSSL PKCS#7 APIs to process signed PKCS#7 or S/MIME content; applications using the CMS APIs for equivalent processing are not affected. Reported affected versions are OpenSSL 4.0.0 before 4.0.1, 3.6.0 before 3.6.3, 3.5.0 before 3.5.7, 3.4.0 before 3.4.6, 3.0.0 before 3.0.21, 1.1.1 before 1.1.1zh, and 1.0.2 before 1.0.2zq.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

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Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation can cause process termination, heap corruption, and in some application contexts potentially remote code execution. The immediate effect is memory safety violation after PKCS7_verify() frees a BIO still assumed to be owned and valid by the caller. In the common case, the application later frees or otherwise accesses the stale BIO pointer, leading to a crash or allocator-state corruption. Depending on heap layout, allocator behavior, and subsequent BIO usage patterns, the corruption may be exploitable beyond denial of service.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate patching is not possible, reduce exposure by avoiding or disabling processing of untrusted PKCS#7 or S/MIME signed messages through the OpenSSL PKCS#7 APIs. Prefer CMS APIs for this processing path where feasible, as the advisory states CMS APIs are not affected. Additional temporary risk reduction includes filtering or isolating workflows that accept externally supplied signed email or PKCS#7 objects and running affected services with hardening measures that limit impact of crashes or memory corruption. No complete workaround is documented in the provided advisories.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade OpenSSL to a fixed release: 4.0.1 or later, 3.6.3 or later, 3.5.7 or later, 3.4.6 or later, 3.0.21 or later, 1.1.1zh or later, or 1.0.2zq or later, as applicable to the deployed branch. Downstream consumers should also apply vendor-supplied updates such as the relevant Debian or FreeBSD security updates where OpenSSL is bundled or redistributed. Ensure applications linked against vulnerable OpenSSL versions are rebuilt/redeployed as needed and restart affected services after patching.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

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VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

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FreebsdFreebsdapplication

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Threat actor evidence

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Associated malware

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Detection signatures

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