NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting openssl package, versions <1:3.5.1-7.el9_7


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.07% (20th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-RHEL9-OPENSSL-15124124
  • published28 Jan 2026
  • disclosed27 Jan 2026

Introduced: 27 Jan 2026

CVE-2025-69421  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade RHEL:9 openssl to version 1:3.5.1-7.el9_7 or higher.
This issue was patched in RHSA-2026:1473.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream openssl package and not the openssl package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

Issue summary: Processing a malformed PKCS#12 file can trigger a NULL pointer dereference in the PKCS12_item_decrypt_d2i_ex() function.

Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to Denial of Service for an application processing PKCS#12 files.

The PKCS12_item_decrypt_d2i_ex() function does not check whether the oct parameter is NULL before dereferencing it. When called from PKCS12_unpack_p7encdata() with a malformed PKCS#12 file, this parameter can be NULL, causing a crash. The vulnerability is limited to Denial of Service and cannot be escalated to achieve code execution or memory disclosure.

Exploiting this issue requires an attacker to provide a malformed PKCS#12 file to an application that processes it. For that reason the issue was assessed as Low severity according to our Security Policy.

The FIPS modules in 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3 and 3.0 are not affected by this issue, as the PKCS#12 implementation is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

OpenSSL 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.0, 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 are vulnerable to this issue.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1