Recovery-path removal via unauthenticated slot deletion
Published Aug 27, 2026 · Updated Aug 27, 2026
Improper integrity validation in OpenSSL Encrypt before 1.4.9 allows attackers to remove recovery slots from envelope files. The password-decryption path verifies the DEK-keyed slot-set MAC only when slot fields remain, so deleting those header fields treats the file as slotless. The attacker needs write access to an encrypted file; normal password decryption still succeeds, but the owner's configured recovery paths are silently lost.
Summary
What happened
Improper integrity validation in OpenSSL Encrypt before 1.4.9 allows attackers to remove recovery slots from envelope files. The password-decryption path verifies the DEK-keyed slot-set MAC only when slot fields remain, so deleting those header fields treats the file as slotless. The attacker needs write access to an encrypted file; normal password decryption still succeeds, but the owner's configured recovery paths are silently lost.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-81680
- Published
- Aug 27, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 27, 2026
- Vendor
- jahlives
- Product
- OpenSSL Encrypt
- Classifications
- CWE-347, CWE-354, T1565.001
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 27, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 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?
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- Affected versionversion=0 <1.4.9
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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