CVE-2026-63072: Heap Buffer Overflow in CMS Key Unwrapping

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-63072 is a high (CVSS 7.5) Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in openssl. EPSS estimates a 0.92% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 60.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 25-08-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 25-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Issue summary: OpenSSL CMS decryption sizes the key-unwrap output buffer based on querying the unwrapped key size, but the AES-WRAP-PAD unwrap primitive can write and cleanse more bytes than that query reports, causing an 8-byte out-of-bounds heap write. Impact summary: An attacker who supplies a crafted CMS message can trigger a deterministic 8-byte out-of-bounds heap write when the victim decrypts it with CMS_decrypt(), corrupting the heap and typically resulting in a Denial of Service. CWE: CWE-787: Out-of-bounds Write Description: The key-wrap OID is potentially attacker-controlled on the wire. CMS unwrapping allows both id-aesNNN-wrap-pad and id-aesNNN-wrap ciphers. An attacker can take a legitimate message and change a single OID byte to select the padded variant while leaving the message otherwise valid. Since the unwrap key is derived from the recipient's private operation (ECDH key agreement or ML-KEM decapsulation), the RFC 5649 integrity check cannot pass, and the decryption fails with integrity failure. The write is a fixed-size (8-byte), fixed-value (zero) heap overflow immediately past the allocation, requires no special configuration, and is reachable from the public CMS_decrypt() function. The consequence is a heap corruption leading to a Denial of Service. The fix in the CMS code sizes the unwrap output buffer for the worst case so a failed unwrap cannot write past the allocation. FIPS impact: no As the CMS code lives outside the FIPS module boundary, no FIPS modules are affected by this CVE.

• CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteThe product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.