Description
Issue summary: A malicious TLS server can cause a memory leak in a TLS
client that has enabled OCSP response checking by sending an OCSP
response that contains no single response entries.
Impact summary: An attacker can leak an attacker-tunable amount of memory
per TLS handshake in a victim client application. A long-running client
that repeatedly connects to a malicious server can have its memory
exhausted, resulting in a Denial of Service.
CWE: CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
Description: The affected function is called during X.509 certificate
chain verification when OCSP response checking is enabled
with the X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK or X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK_ALL
verification flags, for example when a TLS client verifies an OCSP
response stapled into the TLS handshake by the server.
When the received BasicOCSPResponse contains an empty SEQUENCE OF
SingleResponse, which is permitted on the wire and accepted by the
OpenSSL decoder, the OCSP_BASICRESP structure allocated by
OCSP_response_get1_basic() was not freed because an early return
bypassed the cleanup code at the end of the function.
The amount of memory leaked per handshake can be amplified by the
attacker by padding the certs field of the BasicOCSPResponse with
bogus certificates, which are parsed and stored in the leaked
structure before the empty response check triggers the early return.
A long-running TLS client that repeatedly connects to a malicious
server can have its memory exhausted over time.
OCSP response checking is not enabled by default. Only client
applications that explicitly enable the OCSP response check
verification flags are affected.
FIPS impact: no
The FIPS modules in 4.0 and 3.6 are not affected by this issue as the
affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenSSL | OpenSSL | 4.0.0 – < 4.0.2, 3.6.0 – < 3.6.4 | 4.0.2 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | openssl | 3.6.4-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | nodejs | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | nodejs | No fix yet | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | chunkah | 0.6.0-3.hum1 | RHSA-2026:42825 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | openssl +6 | 3.5.6-0.5.hum1 | RHSA-2026:56097 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | openssl3 +3 | 3.5.7-2.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57021 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | python-cryptography +1 | 50.0.0-1.hum1 | RHSA-2026:55543 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | ruby3.3 +5 | 3.3.10-23.5.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57986 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | ruby3.4 +5 | 3.4.10-31.6.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57994 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | ruby4.0 +5 | 4.0.6-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-bigdecimal | 4.0.1-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-devel +2 | 4.0.16-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-io-console | 0.8.2-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-irb | 1.16.0-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-json | 2.18.0-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-minitest | 6.0.0-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-power_assert | 3.0.1-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-psych | 5.3.1-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-racc | 1.8.1-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-rake | 13.3.1-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-rbs | 3.10.0-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-rdoc | 7.0.4-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-rexml | 3.4.4-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-rss | 0.3.2-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-test-unit | 3.7.5-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
| Red Hat Hardened Images 1 | rubygem4.0-typeprof | 0.31.1-37.2.hum1 | RHSA-2026:57565 |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | libssl3 +5 | 3.6.3-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | openssl-4.0 +2 | 4.0.2-r0 | — |
Advisories 8
- RHSA-2026:55543 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 20, 2026
- RHSA-2026:42825 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 20, 2026
- RHSA-2026:57994 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 16, 2026
- RHSA-2026:57986 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 16, 2026
- RHSA-2026:57565 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 16, 2026
- RHSA-2026:57021 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 16, 2026
- RHSA-2026:56097 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Oct 16, 2026
- WID-SEC-2026-2668 OpenSSL: Schwachstelle ermöglicht Denial of Service BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Aug 5, 2026
References
- OpenSSL Advisory vendor-advisory
- 4.0.2 git commit patch
- 3.6.4 git commit patch