CVE-2026-42765
Published:June 09, 2026
Updated:June 11, 2026
Issue summary: When a partial-chain certificate verification is enabled
together with OCSP response checking for the whole chain, a NULL dereference
will happen if the verified chain does not have a self-signed trusted anchor,
crashing the process.
Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to a
Denial of Service for an application.
When performing OCSP response checking for certificates in the verification
chain, the code always tries to access the next certificate as the issuer.
There is a check for a self-signed certificate. However with the partial
chain verification enabled when the chain does not have a self-signed trusted
anchor, the issuer will be NULL for the last certificate in the chain. A NULL
pointer dereference then happens.
This issue affects only applications which enable both OCSP verification
of the certificate chain (X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK_ALL) and partial
chain verification (X509_V_FLAG_PARTIAL_CHAIN) in the certificate
verification. Both flags are disabled by default. For that reason, we have
assigned Low severity to the issue.
No FIPS modules are affected by this issue as the affected code is outside
the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Affected Packages
openssl (CONDA):
Affected version(s) >=3.6.0 <3.6.3Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 3.6.3https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =openssl-4.0.0 <openssl-4.0.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-4.0.1https://github.com/openssl/openssl.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=openssl-3.6.0 <openssl-3.6.3Fix Suggestion:
Update to version openssl-3.6.3Related Resources (5)
Do you need more information?
Contact UsCVSS v4
Base Score:
8.7
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Attack Requirements
NONE
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Vulnerable System Confidentiality
NONE
Vulnerable System Integrity
NONE
Vulnerable System Availability
HIGH
Subsequent System Confidentiality
NONE
Subsequent System Integrity
NONE
Subsequent System Availability
NONE
CVSS v3
Base Score:
7.5
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Weakness Type (CWE)
NULL Pointer Dereference
EPSS
Base Score:
0.03