Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-0217

Memory Safety in Openssl 3.0.0 – 3.0.7

Memory Safety
Published
08 February 2023
Modified
04 November 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.018 77th percentile
Risk Priority 61 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-0217 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Openssl Openssl. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked in the top 23% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An invalid pointer dereference on read can be triggered when an application tries to check a malformed DSA public key by the EVP_PKEY_public_check() function. This will most likely lead to an application crash. This function can be called on public…

more

keys supplied from untrusted sources which could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service attack. The TLS implementation in OpenSSL does not call this function but applications might call the function if there are additional security requirements imposed by standards such as FIPS 140-3.

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-28388Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2026-42765Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2026-28389Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2026-42767Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2025-69421Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2024-0727Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2026-28390Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2026-42764Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2026-42766Same product: Openssl Openssl
CVE-2025-15468Same product: Openssl Openssl

Affected Assets

openssl
openssl
3.0.0 — 3.0.7

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References