7.5

CVE-2023-0217: NULL dereference validating DSA public key

Modified
AliasesALPINE-CVE-2023-0217UBUNTU-CVE-2023-0217DEBIAN-CVE-2023-0217
Published 08-02-2023Last modified 04-11-2025

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2023-0217 is a high (CVSS 7.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in openssl. EPSS estimates a 1.85% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 79% of scored vulnerabilities.

Priority
Prioritisesevere

Severe, CVSS 7.5 (CVE.org); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources; EPSS 2% (FIRST, 03-11-2026)

Source freshness unavailable

How is this decided?
CVSS score
7.5/10
010
High · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
1.85%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedNot listed by any tracked catalog.
RansomwareNot flaggedNo ransomware use recorded.
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 6 · Related 7
MGASA-2023-0130OPENSUSE-SU-2024:12716-1RHSA-2023:0946RHSA-2023:1199SUSE-SU-2023:0312-1USN-5844-1

Timeline

  1. 08-02-2023
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 04-11-2025
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

An invalid pointer dereference on read can be triggered when an application tries to check a malformed DSA public key by the EVP_PKEY_public_check() function. This will most likely lead to an application crash. This function can be called on public keys supplied from untrusted sources which could allow an attacker to cause a denial of service attack. The TLS implementation in OpenSSL does not call this function but applications might call the function if there are additional security requirements imposed by standards such as FIPS 140-3.

CVSS metrics

8 scores · 8 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

1.85%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

79%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

No change 0.00 pp

From 1.85% on 04-10-2026

04-10-202603-11-2026

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEV

Not in the CISA KEV catalog.

ENISA CNW

Not in the ENISA CNW catalog.

CIRCL

Not in the CIRCL catalog.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Version check

Known conditions: network-reachable, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.

Chainguard3 products
  • openssl< 3.1.0-r0
  • openssl-provider-fips< 3.0.8-r0
  • ruby-3.1All versions (No fix recorded)
Alpine2 products
  • openssl≥ 3.0.0, < 3.0.8-r0
  • openssl3< 3.0.8-r0
Wolfi2 products
  • openssl< 3.1.0-r0
  • ruby-3.1All versions (No fix recorded)
Crates.Io1 product
  • openssl-src≥ 300.0.0, < 300.0.12
Debian1 product
  • openssl< 3.0.8-1
Openssl1 product
  • openssl≥ 3.0.0, < 3.0.8 | ≥ 3.0.0, ≤ 3.0.7
Ubuntu1 product
  • openssl< 3.0.2-0ubuntu1.8

7 vendors · 11 products

References

13 links
Show all 13 references