SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityAnalyzed

CVE-2026-81717

openssl_encrypt (pip package openssl-encrypt) before 1.4.9 contains two weaknesses in the portable USB drive feature, whose threat model treats the removable drive as untrusted (attacker with physical write access).

CRITICAL 9.3EPSS 0.12%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.12%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

openssl_encrypt (pip package openssl-encrypt) before 1.4.9 contains two weaknesses in the portable USB drive feature, whose threat model treats the removable drive as untrusted (attacker with physical write access). USBDriveCreator._verify_integrity_file only validates files listed in the manifest, so files added to the drive — including a root-level autorun payload — are not detected and integrity verification still passes. Additionally, a globally constant, source-embedded KDF salt (_LEGACY_FIXED_SALT) is used to derive the drive encryption key for any drive lacking a per-drive salt file, defeating precomputation resistance and enabling an offline rainbow-table attack.

CVSS 4.0
9.3 CRITICALCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
EPSS
0.12% probability · 2th percentile
Public exploits
None in Exploit-DB
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-347
Affected
jahlives/openssl encrypt
Source
disclosure@vulncheck.com
EPSS trend
0%3%5%26 October 2026: 0.12%26 October 202626 October 2026

EPSS 0.1% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.