Cleartext and undetected tampering via OCB pointer reuse
Published Jan 27, 2026 · Updated Jan 27, 2026
Cryptographic failure in OpenSSL allows attackers to read or alter 1–15 trailing message bytes through low-level OCB calls. Hardware stream routines process complete blocks without advancing buffer pointers, so tail handling reuses the buffer start and omits the true tail from encryption and authentication. Exposure requires a hardware-accelerated build and a direct single call to CRYPTO_ocb128_encrypt() or CRYPTO_ocb128_decrypt() with a non-block-aligned length; EVP, provider OCB, TLS, and FIPS modules are unaffected.
Summary
What happened
Cryptographic failure in OpenSSL allows attackers to read or alter 1–15 trailing message bytes through low-level OCB calls. Hardware stream routines process complete blocks without advancing buffer pointers, so tail handling reuses the buffer start and omits the true tail from encryption and authentication. Exposure requires a hardware-accelerated build and a direct single call to CRYPTO_ocb128_encrypt() or CRYPTO_ocb128_decrypt() with a non-block-aligned length; EVP, provider OCB, TLS, and FIPS modules are unaffected.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-69418
- Published
- Jan 27, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 27, 2026
- Vendor
- OpenSSL Project
- Product
- OpenSSL
- Classifications
- CWE-325
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 27, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 27, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=1.1.1 <1.1.1ze
- Affected versionversion=3.0.0 <3.0.19
- Affected versionversion=3.3.0 <3.3.6
- Affected versionversion=3.4.0 <3.4.4
- Affected versionversion=3.5.0 <3.5.5
- Affected versionversion=3.6.0 <3.6.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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