# CVE-2023-2975: AES-SIV implementation ignores empty associated data entries

> OpenSSL's AES-SIV implementation fails to authenticate empty associated data entries, allowing attackers to modify or remove them without detection.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2023-2975, AZL-47652, CLEANSTART-2026-DD78875, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-2975, GHSA-hpqg-7fjp-436p, JLSEC-2026-240, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-2975

## What is CVE-2023-2975?

CVE-2023-2975 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility, published on 14 Jul 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Issue summary: The AES-SIV cipher implementation contains a bug that causes
it to ignore empty associated data entries which are unauthenticated as
a consequence.

Impact summary: Applications that use the AES-SIV algorithm and want to
authenticate empty data entries as associated data can be misled by removing,
adding or reordering such empty entries as these are ignored by the OpenSSL
implementation. We are currently unaware of any such applications.

The AES-SIV algorithm allows for authentication of multiple associated
data entries along with the encryption. To authenticate empty data the
application has to call EVP_EncryptUpdate() (or EVP_CipherUpdate()) with
NULL pointer as the output buffer and 0 as the input buffer length.
The AES-SIV implementation in OpenSSL just returns success for such a call
instead of performing the associated data authentication operation.
The empty data thus will not be authenticated.

As this issue does not affect non-empty associated data authentication and
we expect it to be rare for an application to use empty associated data
entries this is qualified as Low severity issue.

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication), CWE-354 (Improper Validation of Integrity Check Value)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-2975?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Netapp Management Services for Element Software and Netapp Hci, Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility, Openssl Openssl.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-2975?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-2975 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-2975 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-2975 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-2975 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility, published on 14 Jul 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-2975 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Netapp Ontap Select Deploy Administration Utility. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-2975/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-2975/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-2975
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-2975
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-2975

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-2975/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.