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Critical · 9.8 CVE-2026-74900 EUVD-2026-60117GHSA-7qj7-jv8m-rfjwGHSA-p3gq-pcg9-qvfvPYSEC-2026-3772

openssl_encrypt before 1.4.0 Weak Shared Secret via PQC Simulation Mode

Published Aug 17, 2026 · Updated Oct 1, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

Description

openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.0 contain a critical vulnerability in pqc.py where KEM decapsulation failures silently fall back to simulation mode, generating a deterministic shared secret from only 16 bytes of the private key and publicly available encapsulated key data. Attackers who obtain 16 bytes of the private key can compute the shared secret and decrypt all ciphertext, as the fallback triggers on any KEM failure without raising an error.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
jahlives openssl_encrypt < 1.4.0 1.4.0

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI openssl-encrypt < 1.4.0 1.4.0 PYSEC-2026-3772

References