Offline password guessing via unstretched D-Bus key derivation
Published Aug 27, 2026 · Updated Aug 27, 2026
Weak key derivation in OpenSSL Encrypt before 1.4.9 allows attackers to accelerate offline password guessing against D-Bus-encrypted files. The CryptoService.EncryptFile handler passes a raw SHA-256 digest to encryption instead of deriving the key with Argon2id stretching and documented hash rounds. Attackers who obtain files created through that method can test guesses roughly six to seven orders of magnitude faster and read plaintext after recovering a password.
Summary
What happened
Weak key derivation in OpenSSL Encrypt before 1.4.9 allows attackers to accelerate offline password guessing against D-Bus-encrypted files. The CryptoService.EncryptFile handler passes a raw SHA-256 digest to encryption instead of deriving the key with Argon2id stretching and documented hash rounds. Attackers who obtain files created through that method can test guesses roughly six to seven orders of magnitude faster and read plaintext after recovering a password.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-81704
- Published
- Aug 27, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 27, 2026
- Vendor
- jahlives
- Product
- OpenSSL Encrypt
- Classifications
- CWE-916, T1110.002
- Attack vector
- network
- 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- 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
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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