CVE-2021-4044

NameCVE-2021-4044
DescriptionInternally 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 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).
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
openssl (PTS)jessie, jessie (lts)1.0.1t-1+deb8u22fixed
stretch (security)1.1.0l-1~deb9u6fixed
stretch (lts), stretch1.1.0l-1~deb9u10fixed
buster, buster (lts)1.1.1n-0+deb10u7fixed
buster (security)1.1.1n-0+deb10u6fixed
bullseye1.1.1w-0+deb11u1fixed
bullseye (security)1.1.1w-0+deb11u2fixed
bookworm3.0.15-1~deb12u1fixed
bookworm (security)3.0.14-1~deb12u2fixed
sid, trixie3.3.2-2fixed
openssl1.0 (PTS)stretch (security)1.0.2u-1~deb9u7fixed
stretch (lts), stretch1.0.2u-1~deb9u10fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
opensslsourceexperimental3.0.1-1
opensslsource(unstable)(not affected)
openssl1.0source(unstable)(not affected)

Notes

- openssl <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)
https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20211214.txt
- openssl1.0 <not-affected> (Vulnerable code not present)

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