CVE-2023-6237

Excessive time spent checking invalid RSA public keys

MEDIUM
5.9
CVSS Score
Published: April 25, 2024 at 06:27 AM UTC
Updated: October 14, 2026 at 11:17 PM UTC
3 products affected across 2 vendorsOpenSSLSIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFPSINEC NMS

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Severity
MEDIUM5.9
Exploit prediction
EPSS 2%
SSVC
No known exploit

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Affected range stops below 3.0.13, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 3.1.5, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 3.2.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < V3.0 SP1
Affected range stops below V3.0 SP1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

5.9MEDIUMCISA-ADP
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-606

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