Impact
Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12 versions 1.94 and earlier treat passwords as C strings, trimming any content at the first NULL byte. The library determines length with strlen, so bytes at or after the first NULL are silently discarded. This truncation reduces the entropy of passwords that contain embedded NULLs or binary data, weakening the confidentiality of the PKCS12 keystore. It is inferred that a weaker password may allow an attacker to recover private keys or certificates more readily if they can influence or guess the password.
Affected Systems
JONASBN Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12 for Perl, versions through 1.94. All installations using any of these releases are affected until an upgrade to 1.95 or later is applied.
Risk and Exploitability
Any password containing a NULL byte is truncated, so an attacker could construct a password that causes the keystore to use a much weaker key. This behavior can be exploited locally, as the password is supplied to the library within a process. The vulnerability has no official CVSS score listed, and its EPSS score is not available. It is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. It is inferred that the attack vector is local or in‑process, and that the reduced entropy could facilitate brute‑force attacks.
OpenCVE Enrichment