CVE-2023-3817

Excessive time spent checking DH q parameter value

State
Published
Severity
5.3 Medium
Published
Jul 31, 2023
Updated
Oct 14, 2026
Reserved
Jul 21, 2023

Read the record on cve.org

Description

Issue summary: Checking excessively long DH keys or parameters may be very slow.

Impact summary: Applications that use the functions DH_check(), DH_check_ex() or EVP_PKEY_param_check() to check a DH key or DH parameters may experience long delays. Where the key or parameters that are being checked have been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service.

The function DH_check() performs various checks on DH parameters. After fixing CVE-2023-3446 it was discovered that a large q parameter value can also trigger an overly long computation during some of these checks. A correct q value, if present, cannot be larger than the modulus p parameter, thus it is unnecessary to perform these checks if q is larger than p.

An application that calls DH_check() and supplies a key or parameters obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack.

The function DH_check() is itself called by a number of other OpenSSL functions. An application calling any of those other functions may similarly be affected. The other functions affected by this are DH_check_ex() and EVP_PKEY_param_check().

Also vulnerable are the OpenSSL dhparam and pkeyparam command line applications when using the "-check" option.

The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue.

The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are not affected by this issue.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.15.3 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:LCISA-ADP

Weaknesses

  • CWE-606 Unchecked Input for Loop Condition

Affected Products

ProductVersions
OpenSSLOpenSSL
  • 3.1.0 to before 3.1.2Affected
  • 3.0.0 to before 3.0.10Affected
  • 1.1.1 to before 1.1.1vAffected
  • 1.0.2 to before 1.0.2ziAffected

References

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