Cyber Resilience

CVE-2021-4044

HighDDoS

Published: 14 December 2021

Published
14 December 2021
Modified
21 November 2024
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.3328 97.0th percentile
Risk Priority 35 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2021-4044 is a high-severity Infinite Loop (CWE-835) vulnerability in Openssl Openssl. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 3.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

Internally libssl in OpenSSL calls X509_verify_cert() on the client side to verify a certificate supplied by a server. That function may return a negative return value to indicate an internal error (for example out of memory). Such a negative return…

more

value is mishandled by OpenSSL and will cause an IO function (such as SSL_connect() or SSL_do_handshake()) to not indicate success and a subsequent call to SSL_get_error() to return the value SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY. This return value is only supposed to be returned by OpenSSL if the application has previously called SSL_CTX_set_cert_verify_callback(). Since most applications do not do this the SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY return value from SSL_get_error() will be totally unexpected and applications may not behave correctly as a result. The exact behaviour will depend on the application but it could result in crashes, infinite loops or other similar incorrect responses. This issue is made more serious in combination with a separate bug in OpenSSL 3.0 that will cause X509_verify_cert() to indicate an internal error when processing a certificate chain. This will occur where a certificate does not include the Subject Alternative Name extension but where a Certificate Authority has enforced name constraints. This issue can occur even with valid chains. By combining the two issues an attacker could induce incorrect, application dependent behaviour. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.1 (Affected 3.0.0).

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

openssl
openssl
1.1.0, 3.0.0 · ≤ 1.0.2
netapp
cloud backup
all versions
netapp
e-series performance analyzer
all versions
netapp
ontap select deploy administration utility
all versions
netapp
snapcenter
all versions
netapp
a250 firmware
all versions
netapp
500f firmware
all versions
netapp
h500s firmware
all versions
netapp
h700s firmware
all versions
netapp
h300e firmware
all versions
+6 more product configuration(s) — see NVD for full list

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-835

Enables transfer to alternate site if an infinite loop at the primary renders processing unavailable.

addresses: CWE-835

Detects and mitigates infinite loops that produce sustained resource consumption.

References