Out-of-Bounds Write in Openssl (CVE-2026-31789)
Summary
Out-of-bounds write in Openssl (CVE-2026-31789). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Issue summary: Converting an excessively large OCTET STRING value to
a hexadecimal string leads to a heap buffer overflow on 32 bit platforms.
Impact summary: A heap buffer overflow may lead to a crash or possibly
an attacker controlled code execution or other undefined behavior.
If an attacker can supply a crafted X.509 certificate with an excessively
large OCTET STRING value in extensions such as the Subject Key Identifier
(SKID) or Authority Key Identifier (AKID) which are being converted to hex,
the size of the buffer needed for the result is calculated as multiplication
of the input length by 3. On 32 bit platforms, this multiplication may overflow
resulting in the allocation of a smaller buffer and a heap buffer overflow.
Applications and services that print or log contents of untrusted X.509
certificates are vulnerable to this issue. As the certificates would have
to have sizes of over 1 Gigabyte, printing or logging such certificates
is a fairly unlikely operation and only 32 bit platforms are affected,
this issue was assigned Low severity.
The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this
issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
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-2026-31789 has been found in 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 "Openssl CVE-2026-31789" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-31789 (Openssl) — CWE-787 / CVSS v3 9.8
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
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.
Out-of-bounds write (CWE-787) exists in Openssl.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Openssl.
Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
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
-
1Identify 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。 -
2Post-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-2026-31789 openssl Fixed in: 3.3.7-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31789 openssl Fixed in: 3.0.19-1~deb12u2
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31789 openssl Fixed in: 3.0.2-0ubuntu1.23
References
- advisory openssl-library.org
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- advisory github.com
- patch github.com
- patch github.com
- patch github.com
- patch github.com
- patch github.com
- web cert-portal.siemens.com
- web github.com