CVE-2026-81721

highpriority · track · 30EPSS 0.006 · 48 %ileUS

grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled

Exploitable?

—

no known exploitation

Likely / severe?

0.58% (48th) 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 before 1.4.9 fails to validate KDF cost parameters in encrypted file metadata and keystore headers, allowing attackers to trigger unbounded memory allocation. Attackers can craft malicious encrypted files declaring arbitrarily large Argon2, scrypt, or balloon KDF parameters to exhaust system memory and crash the process without authentication.

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:N/I:N/A:Hprimary · disclosure@vulncheck.comexploitability 3.9 · impact 3.6

v4.08.7highCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/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:N/VI:N/VA:H/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-400US

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-2026-38032026-08-27vendor · osvUS
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate KDF cost parameters in encrypted file metadata and keystore headers, allowing attackers to trigger unbounded memory allocation. Attackers can craft malicious encrypted files declaring arbitrarily large Argon2, scrypt, or balloon KDF parameters to exhaust system memory and crash the process without authentication.

also known as (1)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

GHSA-7894-5gw8-69hr osv

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

osv nvd NVD CVE.org MITRE

published 2026-08-27modified 2026-09-02

references (2) nvd

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt/security/advisories/GHSA-7894-5gw8-69hrVendor Advisory
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openssl-encrypt-before-1.4.9-denial-of-service-via-kdf-2Third Party Advisory

scry

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