Security Vulnerabilities
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 executes untrusted third-party plugins with insufficient controls: the plugin signature policy defaulted to WARN, so an unsigned/unverifiable non-built-in plugin was compiled and executed in the host process at import time, before the runtime sandbox is installed. The only default gate was an incomplete, bypassable AST denylist. If a user is induced to load an attacker's plugin, this results in arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running openssl_encrypt. Fixed in 1.4.9 by defaulting the signature policy to ENFORCE for non-built-in plugins.
CVSS Score
9.3
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate the memory_cost parameter from identity file protection blocks, allowing attackers to trigger out-of-memory conditions during key derivation. Attackers with write access to local identity stores can craft malicious identity files with excessive memory_cost values that cause the host to crash when unlocking identities before authentication.
CVSS Score
6.9
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate KDF cost parameters in encrypted file metadata and keystore headers, allowing attackers to trigger unbounded memory allocation. Attackers can craft malicious encrypted files declaring arbitrarily large Argon2, scrypt, or balloon KDF parameters to exhaust system memory and crash the process without authentication.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-08-27
nltk PorterStemmer in versions <= 3.10.2 (fixed in 3.10.3) contains an inefficient-algorithmic-complexity denial of service in PorterStemmer.stem(). The _is_consonant() helper walks backward over the entire run of trailing 'y' characters on every call, and _measure() invokes it for each stem position, causing O(n^2) behavior. A single ~20-50 KB untrusted token consisting of a long run of the letter 'y' followed by a matching suffix (e.g., 'ness') can pin a CPU core for seconds to minutes, causing availability impact.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-08-27
openssl-encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to redact the file password in its --debug argv dump when the password is supplied via bundled short-option spellings (e.g. -apHunter2) or abbreviated long-option spellings (e.g. --passw). The sanitizer only recognized exact option names, --option=value forms, and tokens starting with -p, so these spellings bypass the redaction chokepoint and the cleartext password is written to stderr. Anyone with access to that output (terminal scrollback, merged 2>&1 output, CI job logs, or the GUI's persistent debug log) can recover the password.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to prevent namespace collisions between own identities and contacts in IdentityStore, allowing attackers to create shadowed contact entries invisible until the corresponding own identity is deleted. When the own identity is deleted, the shadowed contact becomes visible and resolves to the attacker's keys, enabling silent key substitution for encrypted files.
CVSS Score
9.3
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt (pip: openssl-encrypt) versions <= 1.4.8 use suffix-tolerant fingerprint matching in enroll_trust_key when binding a plugin-signing trust anchor. An operator who confirms a short (forgeable, ~32-bit) GPG key id could unknowingly enroll an attacker's colliding key as a trusted anchor, which then vouches for malicious plugins under the ENFORCE signature policy. Version 1.4.9 fixes this by requiring the confirmed value to exactly match the full primary-key fingerprint (case-insensitive, whitespace-stripped).
CVSS Score
9.3
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt (pip package openssl-encrypt) versions <= 1.4.8 do not redact the keyserver bearer token passed as the positional argument to 'keyserver set-token' in the --debug argv dump, because sanitize_argv_for_debug fails to sanitize it. As a result the token is printed in cleartext to stderr under --debug (even without --unsafe-show-secrets), persisting the credential in logs and terminal history. Fixed in 1.4.9.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.002
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt (pip: openssl-encrypt) versions before 1.4.9 contain a path traversal flaw in PluginSandbox._is_safe_path, which authorized file access using a bare string-prefix match. A sandboxed plugin without the READ_FILES permission could read or write another plugin's directory that merely shares a name prefix (e.g., .../plugins/foobar matching allowed .../plugins/foo), breaking per-plugin isolation within the same user. Fixed by matching each allowed directory exactly or with a trailing path separator.
CVSS Score
8.7
EPSS Score
0.002
Published
2026-08-27
openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.9 contain a shell injection vulnerability in the info command's reconstructed CLI block that interpolates untrusted metadata fields without quoting. Attackers can craft metadata values like pepper_name containing shell commands that execute when users copy the printed CLI block into a shell.
CVSS Score
9.3
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-08-27