Vulnerability in Oracle Openssl (CVE-2021-3711, CVSS 9.8)

Summary

Vulnerability in Oracle Openssl (CVE-2021-3711). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In order to decrypt SM2 encrypted data an application is expected to call the API function EVP_PKEY_decrypt(). Typically an application will call this function twice. The first time, on entry, the "out" parameter can be NULL and, on exit, the "outlen" parameter is populated with the buffer size required to hold the decrypted plaintext. The application can then allocate a sufficiently sized buffer and call EVP_PKEY_decrypt() again, but this time passing a non-NULL value for the "out" parameter. A bug in the implementation of the SM2 decryption code means that the calculation of the buffer size required to hold the plaintext returned by the first call to EVP_PKEY_decrypt() can be smaller than the actual size required by the second call. This can lead to a buffer overflow when EVP_PKEY_decrypt() is called by the application a second time with a buffer that is too small. A malicious attacker who is able present SM2 content for decryption to an application could cause attacker chosen data to overflow the buffer by up to a maximum of 62 bytes altering the contents of other data held after the buffer, possibly changing application behaviour or causing the application to crash. The location of the buffer is application dependent but is typically heap allocated. Fixed in OpenSSL 1.1.1l (Affected 1.1.1-1.1.1k).

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD GitHub Advisory OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-3711 has been found in Oracle Openssl.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 9.8/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Oracle Openssl CVE-2021-3711" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2021-3711 (Oracle Openssl) — CWE-120 / CVSS v3 9.8
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Affected: 1.1.1 - 1.1.1k
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (CWE-120) exists in Oracle Openssl.

📍 Affected scope

Affected versions of Oracle Openssl: 1.1.1 - 1.1.1k.

🔥 Severity

Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.

🔧 How to fix

Update to the patched release per vendor advisory. (If a vulnerable version 1.1.1 - 1.1.1k is in production, plan an immediate maintenance window.)

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Openssl' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Openssl' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Openssl を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Match against affected range verify
```
Confirm if version satisfies `1.1.1 - 1.1.1k`
```
Step 1 で見つかったバージョンが影響範囲 1.1.1 - 1.1.1k に該当するか照合。本番で稼働中ならインシデント扱い。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Alpine Linux ALPINE-CVE-2021-3711 openssl Fixed in: 1.1.1l-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2021-3711 openssl Fixed in: 1.1.1l-1

Summary

Original description

Auto-generated summary

Response actions

Fix status by distribution

References