POLY1305 MAC implementation corrupts XMM registers on Windows
Issue summary: The POLY1305 MAC (message authentication code) implementation contains a bug that might corrupt the internal state of applications on the Windows 64 platform when running on newer X86_64 processors supporting the AVX512-IFMA instructions. Impact summary: If in an application that uses the OpenSSL library an attacker can influence whether the POLY1305 MAC algorithm is used, the application state might be corrupted with various application dependent consequences. The POLY1305 MAC (message authentication code) implementation in OpenSSL does not save the contents of non-volatile XMM registers on Windows 64 platform when calculating the MAC of data larger than 64 bytes. Before returning to the caller all the XMM registers are set to zero rather than restoring their previous content. The vulnerable code is used only on newer x86_64 processors supporting the AVX512-IFMA instructions. The consequences of this kind of internal application state corruption can be various - from no consequences, if the calling application does not depend on the contents of non-volatile XMM registers at all, to the worst consequences, where the attacker could get complete control of the application process. However given the contents of the registers are just zeroized so the attacker cannot put arbitrary values inside, the most likely consequence, if any, would be an incorrect result of some application dependent calculations or a crash leading to a denial of service. The POLY1305 MAC algorithm is most frequently used as part of the CHACHA20-POLY1305 AEAD (authenticated encryption with associated data) algorithm. The most common usage of this AEAD cipher is with TLS protocol versions 1.2 and 1.3 and a malicious client can influence whether this AEAD cipher is used by the server. This implies that server applications using OpenSSL can be potentially impacted. However we are currently not aware of any concrete application that would be affected by this issue therefore we consider this a Low severity security issue. As a workaround the AVX512-IFMA instructions support can be disabled at runtime by setting the environment variable OPENSSL_ia32cap: OPENSSL_ia32cap=:~0x200000 The FIPS provider is not affected by this issue.
- Published
- Sep 8, 2023
- Updated
- Jun 17, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.8% · 56th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-440
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Report tools
Action score
31
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.8%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- total
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| openssl | openssl | cpe:2.3:a:openssl:openssl |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- openssl openssl1.1.1 and later · before 1.1.1w
- openssl openssl3.0.0 and later · before 3.0.11
- openssl openssl3.1.0 and later · before 3.1.3
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (openssl). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
OpenSSL OpenSSL
- 3.1.0 and later · before 3.1.3affected · semver
- 3.0.0 and later · before 3.0.11affected · semver
- 1.1.1 and later · before 1.1.1waffected
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.15 | openssl | from 1.1.1 · before 0 | 0 |
| Alpine:v3.15 | openssl3 | before 0 | 0 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | openssl-1_1 | before 1.1.1w-1.1 | 1.1.1w-1.1 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | openssl-3 | before 3.1.3-1.2 | 3.1.3-1.2 |
Same product
openssl: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2014-0160The (1) TLS and (2) DTLS implementations in OpenSSL 1.0.1 before 1.0.1g do not properly handle Heartbeat Extension packets, which allows remKEV90Now
- CVE-2021-3711SM2 Decryption Buffer Overflow65This week
- CVE-2003-0545Double free vulnerability in OpenSSL 0.9.7 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code 65This week
- CVE-2016-2108The ASN.1 implementation in OpenSSL before 1.0.1o and 1.0.2 before 1.0.2c allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denia62This week
- CVE-2016-6309statem/statem.c in OpenSSL 1.1.0a does not consider memory-block movement after a realloc call, which allows remote attackers to cause a den60This week
- CVE-2022-3786X.509 Email Address Variable Length Buffer Overflow58Plan
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| OpenSSL OpenSSL | 3.0.11 | Vendor (CNA) |
| OpenSSL OpenSSL | 3.1.3 | Vendor (CNA) |
| alpine:openssl | 0 · Alpine:v3.15 | Package registry (OSV) |
| alpine:openssl3 | 0 · Alpine:v3.15 | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:openssl-1_1 | 1.1.1w-1.1 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:openssl-3 | 3.1.3-1.2 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Package registry (OSV) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
- Zach Wilsonfinder
- Bernd Edlingerremediation developer
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
- A low-privileged account is enough.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- high · data or configuration can be modified
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Local
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-440 · Expected Behavior ViolationCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
- Fix✗ → ✓
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
- git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=4bfac4471f53c4f74c8d81020beb938f92d84ca5
- git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=6754de4a121ec7f261b16723180df6592cbb4508
- git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=a632d534c73eeb3e3db8c7540d811194ef7c79ff
- www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20230908.txt
- security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230921-0001/
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.