CVE-2026-81689CWE-916

CVE-2026-81689

High · published August 27, 2026

CVSS v3.1

7.5

EPSS

Percentile

9.7

In the wild

Unconfirmed

What it is

openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.9 derive the remote-pepper wrap key using unsalted HKDF-SHA256 or bare SHA-256 of the password, allowing identical keys across all users and files. Attackers with access to wrapped pepper blobs can precompute a single dictionary table and perform fleet-wide offline password guessing at hardware speed to recover user passwords.

The record

Technical detail

CVSS v3.1: 7.5 · HIGH
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVSS v4.0: 8.7 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
EPSS: 0.00198 · 9.7th percentile
Weakness: CWE-916 · Use of Password Hash With Insufficient Computational Effort
Published: 2026-08-27T21:20Z

Affected products (1)

Product	Versions	Fixed in
jahlives/openssl_encrypt	< 1.4.9	1.4.9

References (2)

https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt/security/advisories/GHSA-3v63-778v-3mvp · [email protected]https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openssl-encrypt-before-1.4.9-weak-pepper-key-derivation · [email protected]

EPSS history

Timeline

27 AUG 14:50Z
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 Weak Pepper Key Derivation
cvelistv5