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Standard
Vulnerability Identifier

CVE-2023-5678

2023-11-06
Severity Assessment
5.3
MEDIUM
CVSS v3.x Score
Clinical Analysis (Description)

Issue summary: Generating excessively long X9.42 DH keys or checking
excessively long X9.42 DH keys or parameters may be very slow.

Impact summary: Applications that use the functions DH_generate_key() to
generate an X9.42 DH key may experience long delays. Likewise, applications
that use DH_check_pub_key(), DH_check_pub_key_ex() or EVP_PKEY_public_check()
to check an X9.42 DH key or X9.42 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.

While DH_check() performs all the necessary checks (as of CVE-2023-3817),
DH_check_pub_key() doesn't make any of these checks, and is therefore
vulnerable for excessively large P and Q parameters.

Likewise, while DH_generate_key() performs a check for an excessively large
P, it doesn't check for an excessively large Q.

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

DH_generate_key() and DH_check_pub_key() are also 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_pub_key_ex(), EVP_PKEY_public_check(), and EVP_PKEY_generate().

Also vulnerable are the OpenSSL pkey command line application when using the
"-pubcheck" option, as well as the OpenSSL genpkey command line application.

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.

Vector Sequencing

Attack Parameters

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Impact Consequences

Technical Impact

Unchanged
Scope
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness Classification

CWE-CWE-606

Timeline

Time Line

PUBLICATION
06 Nov 2023
MODIFICATION
02 Dec 2025
FIRST PATCH
11 Oct 2025
Impact Statistics

Key Metrics

CVSS Score
5.3
MEDIUM
Patches
3
Available
Articles
1
Published
Remediation Protocol

Recommended Solution

No automatic solution found. Check vendor references.
Associated Cyber Intelligence

Related News Articles

1 article(s) mentioning this vulnerability

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Recommended Actions for Administrators

Immediate Action Plan

1. Inventory

Identify all affected systems in your infrastructure.

2. Assessment

Assess exposure and criticality for your organization.

3. Mitigation

Apply patches or available workarounds.

4. Verification

Test and confirm effectiveness of applied measures.