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Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2021-4044

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

  • Published2021-12-14
  • Fixed in1.0.2
  • WeaknessCWE-835

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Internally libssl in OpenSSL calls X509_verify_cert() on the client side to verify a certificate supplied by a server. That function may return a negative return value to indicate an internal error (for example out of memory). Such a negative return value is mishandled by OpenSSL and will cause an IO function (such as SSL_connect() or SSL_do_handshake()) to not indicate success and a subsequent call to SSL_get_error() to return the value SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY. This return value is only supposed to be returned by OpenSSL if the application has previously called SSL_CTX_set_cert_verify_callback(). Since most applications do not do this the SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY return value from SSL_get_error() will be totally unexpected and applications may not behave correctly as a result. The exact behaviour will depend on the application but it could result in crashes, infinite loops or other similar incorrect responses. This issue is made more serious in combination with a separate bug in OpenSSL 3.0 that will cause X509_verify_cert() to indicate an internal error when processing a certificate chain. This will occur where a certificate does not include the Subject Alternative Name extension but where a Certificate Authority has enforced name constraints. This issue can occur even with valid chains. By combining the two issues an attacker could induce incorrect, application dependent behaviour. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.1 (Affected 3.0.0).

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2021-12-1419:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2026-10-2319:23First public proof of conceptPoC-in-GitHub
  3. 2026-10-2319:23EPSS crossed 10 %FIRST EPSS

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-4044?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-4044?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
OpenSSL
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.0< 1.0.21.0.2
1.1= 1.1.0no fix published
3.0= 3.0.0no fix published
Netapp 500f firmwareversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
—all versionsno fix published
Netapp a250 firmwareversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
—all versionsno fix published

14 more products in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

  1. Update OpenSSL to 1.0.2

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
1 repository, unverifiedphirojshah/CVE-2021-4044
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.17.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.05read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-835read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score50.1 %read 2026-10-23
  • PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept1read 2026-10-23
  • OSVaffected packages—

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Published
2021-12-14
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-4044?

Internally libssl in OpenSSL calls X509_verify_cert() on the client side to verify a certificate supplied by a server. That function may return a negative return value to indicate an internal error (for example out of memory). Such a negative return value is mishandled by OpenSSL and will cause an IO function (such as SSL_connect() or SSL_do_handshake()) to not indicate success and a subsequent call to SSL_get_error() to return the value SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY. This return value is only supposed to be returned by OpenSSL if the application has previously called SSL_CTX_set_cert_verify_callback(). Since most applications do not do this the SSL_ERROR_WANT_RETRY_VERIFY return value from SSL_get_error() will be totally unexpected and applications may not behave correctly as a result. The exact behaviour will depend on the application but it could result in crashes, infinite loops or other similar incorrect responses. This issue is made more serious in combination with a separate bug in OpenSSL 3.0 that will cause X509_verify_cert() to indicate an internal error when processing a certificate chain. This will occur where a certificate does not include the Subject Alternative Name extension but where a Certificate Authority has enforced name constraints. This issue can occur even with valid chains. By combining the two issues an attacker could induce incorrect, application dependent behaviour. Fixed in OpenSSL 3.0.1 (Affected 3.0.0).

Is CVE-2021-4044 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2021-4044 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 50.1% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2021-4044?

CVE-2021-4044 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

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