What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-7798

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 3.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2017-01-30 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-326

Description

The openssl gem for Ruby uses the same initialization vector (IV) in GCM Mode (aes-*-gcm) when the IV is set before the key, which makes it easier for context-dependent attackers to bypass the encryption protection mechanism.

Affected products

• Debian Linux: 8.0, 9.0
• ruby-lang Openssl: before 2.0.0 — fixed in 2.0.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: ruby-lang Openssl 2.0.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/19/9
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/30/6
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/01/2
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93031
• https://github.com/ruby/openssl/commit/8108e0a6db133f3375608303fdd2083eb5115062
• https://github.com/ruby/openssl/issues/49
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/07/msg00012.html
• https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3966
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/19/9
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/09/30/6
• http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/01/2
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/93031

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