Resource exhaustion in Jahlives OpenSSL Encrypt
CVE-2026-81721
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate KDF cost parameters in encrypted file metadata and keystore headers, allowing attackers to trigger unbounded memory allocation. Attackers can craft malicious encrypted files declaring arbitrarily large Argon2, scrypt, or balloon KDF parameters to exhaust system memory and crash the process without authentication.
Vulnerability class: DoS (Denial of Service)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.006 (46.2th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 46th percentile — 46.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.002
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-7894-5gw8-69hr) (vendor-advisory, Vendor Advisory)
- VulnCheck Advisory: openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 Denial of Service via KDF (Third Party Advisory, third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-81721?
- CVE-2026-81721 is a high-severity vulnerability in Jahlives OpenSSL Encrypt, classified under Uncontrolled Resource Consumption. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-08-27.
- How severe is CVE-2026-81721?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.