CVE-2023-0401

A NULL pointer can be dereferenced when signatures are being verified on PKCS7 signed or signedAndEnveloped data. In case the hash algorithm used for the signature is known to the OpenSSL library but the implementation of the hash algorithm is not available the digest initialization will fail. There is a missing check for the return value from the initialization function which later leads to invalid usage of the digest API most likely leading to a crash.

The unavailability of an algorithm can be caused by using FIPS enabled configuration of providers or more commonly by not loading the legacy provider.

PKCS7 data is processed by the SMIME library calls and also by the time stamp (TS) library calls. The TLS implementation in OpenSSL does not call these functions however third party applications would be affected if they call these functions to verify signatures on untrusted data.

Weakness

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.

Affected Software

Name	Vendor	Start Version	End Version
Openssl	Openssl	3.0.0 (including)	3.0.7 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	RedHat	openssl-1:3.0.1-47.el9_1	*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	RedHat	openssl-1:3.0.1-47.el9_1	*
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Extended Update Support	RedHat	openssl-1:3.0.1-46.el9_0	*
Edk2	Ubuntu	trusty	*
Edk2	Ubuntu	xenial	*
Nodejs	Ubuntu	esm-apps/jammy	*
Nodejs	Ubuntu	jammy	*
Nodejs	Ubuntu	trusty	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	devel	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	jammy	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	kinetic	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	lunar	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	mantic	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	trusty	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	upstream	*
Openssl	Ubuntu	xenial	*

NVD	https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-0401
CWE	https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/476.html

NULL Pointer Dereference

Weakness

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References