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Mallory
High

Heap Buffer Over-read in OpenSSL ASN.1 Content Parsing

IdentifiersCVE-2026-34180CWE-190

CVE-2026-34180 is a low-severity vulnerability in OpenSSL's ASN.1 decoder caused by integer truncation when parsing crafted DER-encoded ASN.1 primitive elements whose content length exceeds 2 gigabytes. On affected 64-bit Unix and Unix-like platforms, the oversized length is mishandled during decoding of attacker-controlled ASN.1 data passed to functions such as d2i_X509(), d2i_PKCS7(), and other d2i_* decoders. In the worst case, the truncated length is treated as a request to scan binary content for a terminating zero byte, which can cause a heap buffer over-read and result in the decoded ASN.1 object incorporating memory beyond the end of the input buffer. OpenSSL command-line tools are not affected because BIO-layer checks prevent the vulnerable code path. The issue does not affect 32-bit platforms or 64-bit Windows.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation can cause application crashes, resulting in denial of service, or can lead to information disclosure by causing OpenSSL to read memory beyond the end of the supplied input buffer and load that memory into the decoded ASN.1 object. The issue is described as a heap buffer over-read rather than a write primitive, so the documented impacts are process instability/crash and unintended exposure of adjacent heap contents.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Until patches are deployed, avoid passing attacker-controlled DER-encoded ASN.1 data into affected d2i_* decoding functions, including d2i_X509() and d2i_PKCS7(). Where feasible, validate ASN.1 input sizes before decoding, reject unusually large ASN.1 primitive content lengths, and restrict exposure of vulnerable parsing paths to trusted inputs only. OpenSSL command-line tools are not affected because BIO-layer checks block the vulnerable path.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade OpenSSL to a fixed release. The provided advisory context states the issue is fixed in OpenSSL 4.0.1, 3.6.3, 3.5.7, 3.4.6, 3.0.21, 1.1.1zh, and 1.0.2zq. Apply vendor-packaged updates where OpenSSL is bundled by the operating system or application stack. For downstream platforms, use the vendor-provided patched packages referenced in their advisories.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

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VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
FreebsdFreebsdapplication
OpenSSL Software FoundationOpensslapplication

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Threat actor evidence

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Associated malware

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Detection signatures

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Vendor-by-vendor mapping

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Social activity16

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