EUVD-2026-67041
GHSA-qp5w-w4gh-6jc5
Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessCraft encrypted file with malicious slot identifier
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DeliveryDeliver file to victim
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ExploitVictim opens file in GUI
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ExecutionForged text renders in removal dialog
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PersistVictim approves irreversible removal
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ImpactUser data destroyed
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Output encoding for downstream
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the victim to (1) run the affected desktop GUI of openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9, (2) open an attacker-crafted encrypted file containing malicious recovery-slot metadata, and (3) proceed into the irreversible-removal confirmation dialog and act on it. The specific enabling condition is the GUI rendering unsanitized slot identifiers containing Unicode bidi overrides or line/paragraph separators. Limiting factors: active user interaction is mandatory (contradicting the input's UI:N), the CLI path is not affected, and there is no code execution - worst outcome is user-approved data removal. Not exploitable against default CLI workflows or without a user opening the crafted file. |
| Impact | The provided CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H, score 9.3) is internally inconsistent with the described mechanism and should be treated with caution. The vulnerability inherently requires a victim to open an attacker-crafted file and act on a dialog, so UI:N is wrong - real exploitation is user-interaction-dependent. Likewise VC:H/VI:H/VA:H overstates impact: this is UI spoofing that can lead a user to delete their own data, not direct attacker-controlled read/write or code execution. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC is present in the source data, indicating no evidence of active or automated exploitation. Net real-world priority is moderate at most: meaningful for users who process untrusted encrypted files in the GUI, but far below what a 9.3 'critical' implies. Verify the impact metrics with the vendor advisory before triaging on the raw score. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker distributes a seemingly legitimate encrypted file whose recovery-slot identifier embeds a bidi override and line separators. The victim opens it in the openssl_encrypt desktop GUI and initiates removal; the forged confirmation dialog displays reassuring or misleading warning text, and the victim approves an irreversible removal they did not intend. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, but the technique is straightforward to reproduce. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Aug 27, 2026
Output-encoding text injection in jahlives openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 lets an attacker forge the desktop GUI's irreversible-removal confirmation dialog. By embedding bidirectional-override and line-separator control characters in the recovery-slot identifier of a crafted encrypted file, an attacker can rewrite the warning text a victim sees, tricking them into approving destructive file-removal operations. No public exploit is identified at time of analysis, and the record is not in CISA KEV; the published 9.3 CVSS 4.0 rating appears inflated relative to the spoofing-only mechanism.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade to openssl_encrypt 1.4.9 or later, which sanitizes recovery-slot metadata before display (see GHSA-49h2-qmcq-wvvc). Until upgraded, the actionable compensating controls are: do not open encrypted files received from untrusted sources in the desktop GUI (use the CLI, which does not render the spoofable dialog, at the cost of GUI convenience); and treat any file-removal confirmation with visually irregular, right-to-left, or multi-line slot text as suspect and cancel the operation. Because the mechanism is data loss via deception, maintaining independent backups before performing any irreversible-removal action limits the blast radius. Reference advisories: the GitHub GHSA link above and the VulnCheck advisory.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in pypi
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Technical ContextAI · show details
openssl_encrypt is a Python-based file-encryption utility (CPE cpe:2.3:a:jahlives:openssl_encrypt) that supports multiple 'recovery slots' of key/metadata within an encrypted container. The desktop GUI renders slot-identifier metadata directly into a user-facing confirmation dialog for the irreversible-removal workflow. The root cause is CWE-116 (Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output): untrusted slot metadata is displayed without neutralizing terminal/GUI control sequences, so Unicode bidi overrides (e.g., U+202E) and line/paragraph separators (U+2028/U+2029) survive into the rendered dialog and can visually reorder or inject text. This is a presentation-layer trust problem, not a memory-safety or code-execution defect.
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Severity by source
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Requires the victim to open a crafted file and act on a spoofed dialog, so AV:L and UI:R; no confidentiality impact, but user-approved irreversible removal yields integrity and availability loss.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.9 fail to sanitize recovery-slot metadata in the desktop GUI, allowing attackers to inject control characters and line separators into the irreversible-removal confirmation dialog. Attackers can craft encrypted files with malicious slot identifiers containing bidi overrides or line-separator characters to forge warning text and deceive users during file removal operations.
Executive ViewAI
jahlives openssl_encrypt before version 1.4.9 allows attackers to forge file-deletion confirmation dialogs by injecting control characters into encrypted file metadata, potentially tricking users into permanently removing critical data. Organizations using this library face unintended data loss and business continuity risk if end users are successfully manipulated through spoofed interface warnings.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: deploy input validation on recovery-slot identifiers to strip or reject control characters before processing encrypted files; conduct targeted end-user training on file-deletion confirmation dialogs with emphasis on suspicious wording; audit recent deleted-file incidents for indicators of exploit attempts; monitor vendor repositories for patch availability.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Code injection occurs when an application accepts user input and passes it directly into a language interpreter or evaluator without proper sanitization.
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