CVE-2023-1255: Input buffer over-read in AES-XTS implementation on 64 bit ARM

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.9 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-04-20 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-125

Description

Issue summary: The AES-XTS cipher decryption implementation for 64 bit ARM platform contains a bug that could cause it to read past the input buffer, leading to a crash. Impact summary: Applications that use the AES-XTS algorithm on the 64 bit ARM platform can crash in rare circumstances. The AES-XTS algorithm is usually used for disk encryption. The AES-XTS cipher decryption implementation for 64 bit ARM platform will read past the end of the ciphertext buffer if the ciphertext size is 4 mod 5 in 16 byte blocks, e.g. 144 bytes or 1024 bytes. If the memory after the ciphertext buffer is unmapped, this will trigger a crash which results in a denial of service. If an attacker can control the size and location of the ciphertext buffer being decrypted by an application using AES-XTS on 64 bit ARM, the application is affected. This is fairly unlikely making this issue a Low severity one.

Affected products

OpenSSL: from 3.0.0 before 3.0.9; from 3.1.0 before 3.1.1 — fixed in 3.0.9, 3.1.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: OpenSSL 3.0.9, 3.1.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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