CVE-2024-5991 | Buffer overread in domain name matching

In function MatchDomainName(), input param str is treated as a NULL terminated string despite being user provided and unchecked. Specifically, the function X509_check_host() takes in a pointer and length to check against, with no requirements that it be NULL terminated. If a caller was attempting to do a name check on a non-NULL terminated buffer, the code would read beyond the bounds of the input array until it found a NULL terminator.This issue affects wolfSSL: through 5.7.0.

Published: 2024-08-27 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2024-5991 is rated Moderate Risk (55.1/100): CVSS Critical severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.56%). Review affected assets and schedule 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-2024-5991

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 2026-06-15 0.14% 0.56% +0.41%
2 2026-01-21 0.21% 0.14% -0.07%
3 2026-01-16 — 0.21% —

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-5991

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
10.0 4.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:H)
High confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:H)
High integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:H)
High availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:H)
High confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:H)
High integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:H)
High availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
 — — [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-5991

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-5991

vendor priority summary link
alpine critical CVE-2024-5991: 1 source package rows (wolfssl); 19 state rows across 4 repos (3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 4, open 15. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2024-5991
debian not yet assigned CVE-2024-5991 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (wolfssl), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid, trixie): open 2, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-5991
ubuntu medium CVE-2024-5991 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (wolfssl), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 7, ignored 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-5991

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-5991

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wolfssl wolfssl <= 5.7.0 cpe:2.3:a:wolfssl:wolfssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-5991

cvelogic Threat Intelligence