Description
OpenSC is an open source smart card tools and middleware. Prior to version 0.27.0, sc_compacttlv_find_tag searches a compact-TLV buffer for a given tag. In compact-TLV, a single byte encodes the tag (high nibble) and value length (low nibble). With a 1-byte buffer {0x0A}, the encoded element claims tag=0 and length=10 but no value bytes follow. Calling sc_compacttlv_find_tag with search tag 0x00 returns a pointer equal to buf+1 and outlen=10 without verifying that the claimed value length fits within the remaining buffer. In cases where the sc_compacttlv_find_tag is provided untrusted data (such as being read from cards/files), attackers may be able to influence it to return out-of-bounds pointers leading to downstream memory corruption when subsequent code tries to dereference the pointer. This issue has been patched in version 0.27.0.
Published: 2026-03-30
Score: 3.9 Low
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
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History

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description OpenSC is an open source smart card tools and middleware. Prior to version 0.27.0, sc_compacttlv_find_tag searches a compact-TLV buffer for a given tag. In compact-TLV, a single byte encodes the tag (high nibble) and value length (low nibble). With a 1-byte buffer {0x0A}, the encoded element claims tag=0 and length=10 but no value bytes follow. Calling sc_compacttlv_find_tag with search tag 0x00 returns a pointer equal to buf+1 and outlen=10 without verifying that the claimed value length fits within the remaining buffer. In cases where the sc_compacttlv_find_tag is provided untrusted data (such as being read from cards/files), attackers may be able to influence it to return out-of-bounds pointers leading to downstream memory corruption when subsequent code tries to dereference the pointer. This issue has been patched in version 0.27.0.
Title OpenSC: `sc_compacttlv_find_tag` can return out-of-bounds pointers
Weaknesses CWE-126
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 3.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-03-30T17:03:55.914Z

Reserved: 2025-11-21T01:08:02.615Z

Link: CVE-2025-66038

cve-icon Vulnrichment

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cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-03-30T18:16:18.177

Modified: 2026-03-30T18:16:18.177

Link: CVE-2025-66038

cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses