CVE-2023-2650 | Possible DoS translating ASN.1 object identifiers

Issue summary: Processing some specially crafted ASN.1 object identifiers or data containing them may be very slow. Impact summary: Applications that use OBJ_obj2txt() directly, or use any of the OpenSSL subsystems OCSP, PKCS7/SMIME, CMS, CMP/CRMF or TS with no message size limit may experience notable to very long delays when processing those messages, which may lead to a Denial of Service. An OBJECT IDENTIFIER is composed of a series of numbers - sub-identifiers - most of which have no size limit. OBJ_obj2txt() may be used to translate an ASN.1 OBJECT IDENTIFIER given in DER encoding form (using the OpenSSL type ASN1_OBJECT) to its canonical numeric text form, which are the sub-identifiers of the OBJECT IDENTIFIER in decimal form, separated by periods. When one of the sub-identifiers in the OBJECT IDENTIFIER is very large (these are sizes that are seen as absurdly large, taking up tens or hundreds of KiBs), the translation to a decimal number in text may take a very long time. The time complexity is O(n^2) with 'n' being the size of the sub-identifiers in bytes (*). With OpenSSL 3.0, support to fetch cryptographic algorithms using names / identifiers in string form was introduced. This includes using OBJECT IDENTIFIERs in canonical numeric text form as identifiers for fetching algorithms. Such OBJECT IDENTIFIERs may be received through the ASN.1 structure AlgorithmIdentifier, which is commonly used in multiple protocols to specify what cryptographic algorithm should be used to sign or verify, encrypt or decrypt, or digest passed data. Applications that call OBJ_obj2txt() directly with untrusted data are affected, with any version of OpenSSL. If the use is for the mere purpose of display, the severity is considered low. In OpenSSL 3.0 and newer, this affects the subsystems OCSP, PKCS7/SMIME, CMS, CMP/CRMF or TS. It also impacts anything that processes X.509 certificates, including simple things like verifying its signature. The impact on TLS is relatively low, because all versions of OpenSSL have a 100KiB limit on the peer's certificate chain. Additionally, this only impacts clients, or servers that have explicitly enabled client authentication. In OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 1.0.2, this only affects displaying diverse objects, such as X.509 certificates. This is assumed to not happen in such a way that it would cause a Denial of Service, so these versions are considered not affected by this issue in such a way that it would be cause for concern, and the severity is therefore considered low.

Published: 2023-05-30 Last update: 2025-03-19 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2023-2650 is rated Moderate Risk (60.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 91.01%, 100th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-2650

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-13 91.74% 91.01% -0.72%
2 2026-06-09 91.79% 91.74% -0.05%
3 2026-06-03 91.79%

Full EPSS history (50 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-2650

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
2.8 3.6 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
2.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-2650

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-2650

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2023-2650: 1 source package rows (openssl); 112 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 7, open 105. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-2650
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-2650 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (openssl), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-2650
gentoo normal CVE-2023-2650: 1 GLSA(s) (202402-08), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/openssl); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-2650
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-2650
suse medium CVE-2023-2650 severity moderate: SUSE including 680 source package names (0.23.0.3.2.452:libopenssl1_1-1.1.1d-150200.11.65.1, 0.23.0.3.2.452:libopenssl1_1-hmac-1.1.1d-150200.11.65.1, …), 1564 product×package rows across 324 product lines (Container bci/bci-base-fips, Container bci/bci-init, … (324 product lines)): Fixed 1350, Known Affected 152, Known Not Affected 62. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-2650/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-2650 medium priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (edk2, nodejs, openssl, openssl1.0), 52 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 16, not-affected 15, DNE 11, needs-triage 5, ignored 4, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-2650

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-2650

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
openssl openssl >= 1.0.2, < 1.0.2zh cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
openssl openssl >= 1.1.1, < 1.1.1u cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
openssl openssl >= 3.0.0, < 3.0.9 cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
openssl openssl >= 3.1.0, < 3.1.1 cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-2650

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/05/30/1 Mailing List
https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=423a2bc737a908ad0c77bda470b2b59dc879936b Mailing List Patch
https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=853c5e56ee0b8650c73140816bb8b91d6163422c Broken Link
https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=9e209944b35cf82368071f160a744b6178f9b098 Mailing List Patch
https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=db779b0e10b047f2585615e0b8f2acdf21f8544a Mailing List Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/06/msg00011.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://psirt.global.sonicwall.com/vuln-detail/SNWLID-2023-0009 Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202402-08
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230703-0001/ Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231027-0009/
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5417 Third Party Advisory
https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20230530.txt Vendor Advisory
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