How severe is CVE-2026-22796?

CVE-2026-22796 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.3, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability low.

Is CVE-2026-22796 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (39th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What products are affected by CVE-2026-22796?

CVE-2026-22796 affects Openssl. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.

How do I fix CVE-2026-22796?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.

Does CVE-2026-22796 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?

Yes. CVE-2026-22796 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-4813.

When was CVE-2026-22796 published?

CVE-2026-22796 was published on 2026-01-27 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

CVE-2026-22796

CVE-2026-22796 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Openssl with a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.3. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-754.

Key facts

Severity: Medium (CVSS 3.x base score 5.3)
EPSS exploit prediction: 1% (39th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
EU (EUVD) id: EUVD-2026-4813
Weakness: CWE-754
Affected product: Openssl
Published: 2026-01-27
Last modified: 2026-06-17

Description

Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the signature verification of signed PKCS#7 data where an ASN1_TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL pointer dereference when processing malformed PKCS#7 data. Impact summary: An application performing signature verification of PKCS#7 data or calling directly the PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() function can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in a Denial of Service. The function PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() accesses the message digest attribute value without validating its type. When the type is not V_ASN1_OCTET_STRING, this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1_TYPE union, causing a crash. Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed signed PKCS#7 to an application that verifies it. The impact of the exploit is just a Denial of Service, the PKCS7 API is legacy and applications should be using the CMS API instead. For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity. The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#7 parsing implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-22796?: Issue summary: A type confusion vulnerability exists in the signature verification of signed PKCS#7 data where an ASN1_TYPE union member is accessed without first validating the type, causing an invalid or NULL pointer dereference when processing malformed PKCS#7 data. Impact summary: An application performing signature verification of PKCS#7 data or calling directly the PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() function can be caused to dereference an invalid or NULL pointer when reading, resulting in a Denial of Service. The function PKCS7_digest_from_attributes() accesses the message digest attribute value without validating its type. When the type is not V_ASN1_OCTET_STRING, this results in accessing invalid memory through the ASN1_TYPE union, causing a crash. Exploiting this vulnerability requires an attacker to provide a malformed signed PKCS#7 to an application that verifies it. The impact of the exploit is just a Denial of Service, the PKCS7 API is legacy and applications should be using the CMS API instead. For these reasons the issue was assessed as Low severity. The FIPS modules in 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#7 parsing implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary. OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.
How severe is CVE-2026-22796?: CVE-2026-22796 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.3, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability low.
Is CVE-2026-22796 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 1% (39th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2026-22796?: CVE-2026-22796 affects Openssl. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2026-22796?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2026-22796 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?: Yes. CVE-2026-22796 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-4813.
When was CVE-2026-22796 published?: CVE-2026-22796 was published on 2026-01-27 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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Threat intelligence

Threat-intel indicators referencing this CVE:

50.255.62.89 (ipv4-addr)
45.84.120.3 (ipv4-addr)
45.232.73.84 (ipv4-addr)
223.197.186.7 (ipv4-addr)
218.51.148.194 (ipv4-addr)
203.192.232.180 (ipv4-addr)
20.157.117.15 (ipv4-addr)
197.44.15.210 (ipv4-addr)