CVE-2026-81689

highpriority · track · 30EPSS 0.003 · 19 %ileUS

grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled

Exploitable?

—

no known exploitation

Likely / severe?

0.27% (19th) EPSS

CVSS 7.5 · high

Is it mine?

2 products

Check your exposure

Who says so?

2 sources

osv · nvd

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.9 derive the remote-pepper wrap key using unsalted HKDF-SHA256 or bare SHA-256 of the password, allowing identical keys across all users and files. Attackers with access to wrapped pepper blobs can precompute a single dictionary table and perform fleet-wide offline password guessing at hardware speed to recover user passwords.

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

8.7

010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 6.6–8.7

v3.17.5highCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Nprimary · disclosure@vulncheck.comexploitability 3.9 · impact 3.6

v4.08.7highCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:Xsecondary · disclosure@vulncheck.com

v4.06.6mediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:Xsecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: partialcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

CWE-916US

affected products (2)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

jahlives openssl encrypt< 1.4.9nvdUScpe:2.3:a:jahlives:openssl_encrypt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
PyPI openssl-encrypt< 1.4.9osvUSpkg:pypi/openssl-encrypt

advisories (1)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

PYSEC-2026-39592026-08-27vendor · osvUS
openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.9 derive the remote-pepper wrap key using unsalted HKDF-SHA256 or bare SHA-256 of the password, allowing identical keys across all users and files. Attackers with access to wrapped pepper blobs can precompute a single dictionary table and perform fleet-wide offline password guessing at hardware speed to recover user passwords.

also known as (1)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

GHSA-3v63-778v-3mvp osv

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

osv nvd NVD CVE.org MITRE

published 2026-08-27modified 2026-09-03

references (2) nvd

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt/security/advisories/GHSA-3v63-778v-3mvpVendor Advisory
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openssl-encrypt-before-1.4.9-weak-pepper-key-derivationThird Party Advisory

scry

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