CVE-2023-49083 cryptography vulnerable to NULL-dereference when loading PKCS7 certificates

Medium 5.9 Published Updated

Attackers can cause a denial of service by triggering a null pointer dereference when loading malformed PKCS7 certificates.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Not needed
Attackable
Over the internet
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2023-49083?

CVE-2023-49083 is a medium-severity vulnerability in pyca cryptography, published on 29 Nov 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

cryptography is a package designed to expose cryptographic primitives and recipes to Python developers. Calling `load_pem_pkcs7_certificates` or `load_der_pkcs7_certificates` could lead to a NULL-pointer dereference and segfault. Exploitation of this vulnerability poses a serious risk of Denial of Service (DoS) for any application attempting to deserialize a PKCS7 blob/certificate. The consequences extend to potential disruptions in system availability and stability. This vulnerability has been patched in version 41.0.6.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-49083?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including cryptography. It affects 1 product.

PackageAffectedFixed in
cryptography PyPIFrom 3.141.0.6
cryptography PyPIFrom 3.141.0.6
cryptography PyPIFrom 3.141.0.6
Linux distribution packages (37)
python3-cryptography AlmaLinux:8All versions3.2.1-8.el8_10
python3.11-cryptography AlmaLinux:8All versions37.0.2-6.el8
python3-cryptography AlmaLinux:9All versions36.0.1-5.el9_6
python3.11-cryptography AlmaLinux:9All versions37.0.2-6.el9
python3.11-cryptography Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstreamAll versions0:37.0.2-6.el8
python3.11-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstreamAll versions0:37.0.2-6.el8
python3.11-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::appstreamAll versions0:37.0.2-6.el8
python-cryptography Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-8.el8_10
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-8.el8_10
python3-cryptography Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-8.el8_10
python3-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-8.el8_10
python3.11-cryptography Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstreamAll versions0:37.0.2-6.el9
python3.11-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstreamAll versions0:37.0.2-6.el9
python3.11-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstreamAll versions0:37.0.2-6.el9
python-cryptography Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseosAll versions0:36.0.1-5.el9_6
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseosAll versions0:36.0.1-5.el9_6
python3-cryptography Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseosAll versions0:36.0.1-5.el9_6
python3-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseosAll versions0:36.0.1-5.el9_6
python-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-4.el8_4.1
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-4.el8_4.1
python3-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-4.el8_4.1
python3-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.4::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-4.el8_4.1
python-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python3-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python3-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_aus:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python3-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python3-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.6::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-5.1.el8_6.1
python-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-6.el8_8
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-6.el8_8
python3-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-6.el8_8
python3-cryptography-debuginfo Red Hat:rhel_e4s:8.8::baseosAll versions0:3.2.1-6.el8_8
python-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_e4s:9.0::appstreamAll versions0:36.0.1-1.el9_0.1
python-cryptography-debugsource Red Hat:rhel_e4s:9.0::appstreamAll versions0:36.0.1-1.el9_0.1
python3-cryptography Red Hat:rhel_e4s:9.0::appstreamAll versions0:36.0.1-1.el9_0.1

Products include Cryptography.io Cryptography.

How do I fix CVE-2023-49083?

Upgrade cryptography to 41.0.6 or later.

Is CVE-2023-49083 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2023-49083 exists.

Sources

Also known as ALSA-2024:2337, ALSA-2024:3105, ALSA-2025:14553, ALSA-2025:15874, AZL-32051, AZL-35128 and 31 more.

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