CVE-2026-42765: NULL Dereference in Certificate Verification with OCSP Checking
- Is it exploited?
Not on CISA's list. CISA has not added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as of . If CISA adds it, this page shows it as known exploited.
- How likely is exploitation in the next 30 days?
- 0.5%
EPSS score, percentile 43.3 of all scored records. A probability estimated by FIRST, not a report of exploitation.
- How severe?
- 7.5 High
CVSS v3.1 base score, from CISA's enrichment of the record
- What should I do?
CISA has set no required action, because the vulnerability is not in KEV.
- Which versions are affected?
Affected
- from 4.0.0 to before 4.0.1
- from 3.6.0 to before 3.6.3
Source: CISA KEV 2026.10.29, as of ; FIRST EPSS, as of ; CVE List, as of . About the data.
What to do
Advisories and patches
This summary is based on the CVE record as of . Check the vendor's advisory before you act: affected versions and fixes can change.
Affected products and versions
As listed in the CVE record.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 4.0.0 to before 4.0.1 |
| Affected | from 3.6.0 to before 3.6.3 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
Source: CVE List, as of . About the data.
About this vulnerability
Issue summary: When a partial-chain certificate verification is enabled together with OCSP response checking for the whole chain, a NULL dereference will happen if the verified chain does not have a self-signed trusted anchor, crashing the process. Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to a Denial of Service for an application. When performing OCSP response…
Summary: CVE record, as of .
- CISA has not added CVE-2026-42765 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, as of 29 Oct 2026.
- The CVE record was published on 9 Jun 2026.
- The CVE record carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (High), taken from CISA's enrichment of the record.
- FIRST's EPSS model puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.5% (percentile 43.3), as of 29 Oct 2026. EPSS is a statistical estimate, not a report of exploitation.
- CISA's SSVC assessment in the CVE record: exploitation none, automatable yes, technical impact partial.
- The credits in the CVE record name AISLE as finder.
Source: CISA KEV 2026.10.29, as of ; CVE List, as of ; FIRST EPSS, as of . About the data.
Description
NULL Dereference in Certificate Verification with OCSP Checking
Issue summary: When a partial-chain certificate verification is enabled together with OCSP response checking for the whole chain, a NULL dereference will happen if the verified chain does not have a self-signed trusted anchor, crashing the process. Impact summary: A NULL pointer dereference can trigger a crash which leads to a Denial of Service for an application. When performing OCSP response checking for certificates in the verification chain, the code always tries to access the next certificate as the issuer. There is a check for a self-signed certificate. However with the partial chain verification enabled when the chain does not have a self-signed trusted anchor, the issuer will be NULL for the last certificate in the chain. A NULL pointer dereference then happens. This issue affects only applications which enable both OCSP verification of the certificate chain (X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK_ALL) and partial chain verification (X509_V_FLAG_PARTIAL_CHAIN) in the certificate verification. Both flags are disabled by default. For that reason, we have assigned Low severity to the issue. No FIPS modules are affected by this issue as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Source: CVE List, as of . About the data.
Weakness
CWE-476
- CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference
CWE and CAPEC are maintained by MITRE; the entries are those named in the CVE record.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| CVE record published | |
| CVE record last updated |
Known exploited OpenSSL vulnerabilities
- CVE-2014-0160: OpenSSL Information Disclosure Vulnerability