All vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-75806

OpenSSL: Unauthenticated and Undersized DTLS 1.2 AEAD Record Causes DoS

OpenSSL OpenSSLLibraries & packages
CVSS
5.3Medium
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.39%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 31% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in4.0.3Also 3.6.5, 3.5.9 and 3 moreCVE List
Published29 Sep 2026Updated 29 Sep 2026CVE List

What fixes it

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

Issue summary: An established DTLS 1.2 association using an AEAD cipher suite can be terminated by a single unauthenticated datagram whose encrypted fragment is shorter than the mandatory explicit IV and authentication tag overhead.

Impact summary: An attacker who can send a datagram that is routed to an existing DTLS 1.2 association can tear that association down without knowing any key material. This is a Denial of Service limited to the targeted association. There is no memory safety or confidentiality impact.

CWE: CWE-1284: Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input

Description: In TLS 1.2 and DTLS 1.2 every record protected by an AEAD cipher suite carries an explicit IV followed by the ciphertext and an authentication tag. When decrypting such a record the record layer passed the record length to the cipher implementation before checking that the record was long enough to contain the explicit IV and the tag. For a record shorter than that overhead the cipher implementation rejected the impossible length, and the record layer treated this as an internal failure and raised a fatal internal_error alert instead of treating the record as one that failed authentication.

In TLS 1.2 the same record causes a fatal internal_error alert instead of the expected bad_record_mac alert. Since any undecryptable record already terminates a TLS connection, this is a protocol conformance issue rather than a security issue in TLS.

The fix validates the record length against the explicit IV and tag length before any AEAD processing, so that TLS reports bad_record_mac and DTLS silently discards the record.

FIPS impact: no The affected code is outside the FIPS module boundary.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 6

  • OpenSSLaffected: 4.0.0 before 4.0.3CVE List
  • OpenSSLaffected: 3.6.0 before 3.6.5CVE List
  • OpenSSLaffected: 3.5.0 before 3.5.9CVE List
  • OpenSSLaffected: 3.4.0 before 3.4.8CVE List
  • OpenSSLaffected: 3.0.0 before 3.0.23CVE List
  • OpenSSLaffected: 1.1.1 before 1.1.1zjCVE List

References 5