CVE-2023-6237

MediumCVSS 5.9/10Last modified Oct 14, 2026

Description

Issue summary: Checking excessively long invalid RSA public keys may take a long time.

Impact summary: Applications that use the function EVP_PKEY_public_check() to check RSA public keys may experience long delays. Where the key that is being checked has been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service.

When function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is called on RSA public keys, a computation is done to confirm that the RSA modulus, n, is composite. For valid RSA keys, n is a product of two or more large primes and this computation completes quickly. However, if n is an overly large prime, then this computation would take a long time.

An application that calls EVP_PKEY_public_check() and supplies an RSA key obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack.

The function EVP_PKEY_public_check() is not called from other OpenSSL functions however it is called from the OpenSSL pkey command line application. For that reason that application is also vulnerable if used with the '-pubin' and '-check' options on untrusted data.

The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue.

The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are affected by this issue.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1 5.9/10CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness enumeration

Affected software

No affected versions have been published.

Timeline

Published
Apr 25, 2024
Last modified
Oct 14, 2026
NVD status
Deferred

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CVE-2023-6237: Medium severity, CVSS 5.9 | Vulnix