Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessCraft identity bundle with ANSI escapes in email
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DeliveryDeliver via keyserver or contact exchange
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ExploitVictim imports malicious identity
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ExecutionTerminal renders forged fingerprint line
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PersistVictim trusts substituted key
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ImpactAttacker performs key-substitution MITM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Input validation, allowlisting
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires that the target use openssl_encrypt's identity-import and fingerprint-verification workflow in a terminal that interprets ANSI/VT100 escape sequences (most standard terminal emulators). The attacker must get a crafted identity document to the victim through a supported channel - a keyserver response or the normal contact-exchange import flow. Limiting factors: the victim must actually import the malicious identity and visually rely on the displayed fingerprint line (user interaction), so purely automated or headless use, or verification via raw non-rendered fingerprint data, is not affected; terminals or viewers that neutralize control characters also blunt the attack. No authentication is required (CVSS PR:N). |
| Impact | The input CVSS 4.0 vector (AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N, VC:H/VI:H/VA:H, score 9.3) rates this as critical with full CIA impact, but that rating is questionable: the described flaw is a display-spoofing/verification-bypass primitive whose direct impact is integrity (a forged fingerprint), not confidentiality or availability of the host, and it realistically requires the victim to import and visually inspect a crafted identity - i.e. user interaction the vector marks as UI:N. Confidentiality/integrity of subsequent communications can be compromised indirectly if the user is tricked into trusting an attacker-controlled key, so the high-severity intent is defensible even if VA:H is not. No EPSS score, KEV entry, or POC was provided, so there is no signal of active or imminent exploitation; the real-world risk is bounded by the product's very small deployment footprint and the need for a user to be walked through verification. This looks like a genuine security weakness that is high-severity in theory but low-urgency in practice given prevalence and lack of exploitation evidence. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts an identity bundle whose email field contains ANSI escape sequences and publishes it to a keyserver or hands it over during a normal contact exchange. When the victim imports it and runs the verification step, their terminal interprets the escapes and renders a fingerprint matching the attacker's substituted key; the victim confirms the 'match' and unknowingly trusts the wrong key. No public POC is identified at time of analysis, but the technique is low-complexity and requires no authentication. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Aug 27, 2026
Fingerprint-verification spoofing in jahlives openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 lets attackers embed ANSI escape sequences in the email field of an imported identity document, rewriting the terminal line that displays a key fingerprint. A remote, unauthenticated attacker who delivers a crafted identity bundle via normal contact-exchange or keyserver flows can make the tool render a fraudulent fingerprint, defeating the out-of-band verification that guards against key-substitution (MITM) attacks. No public exploit is identified at time of analysis and it is not on CISA KEV.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: upgrade to openssl_encrypt 1.4.9 or later, which sanitizes the email field of imported identity documents (see advisory GHSA-qjr2-x6mr-8xgf). If immediate upgrade is not possible, compensating controls include treating fingerprint verification as untrusted until patched - verify fingerprints through a channel that does not render attacker-controlled text (for example compare the raw hex from a non-terminal source, or pipe output through a control-character filter such as 'cat -v' or 'less' before trusting it) - and avoid importing identity bundles from untrusted keyservers or contacts. These workarounds add manual friction and do not fully close the injection, so they are stopgaps only until 1.4.9 is deployed.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
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Technical ContextAI · show details
openssl_encrypt is a Python file/identity encryption utility (CPE cpe:2.3:a:jahlives:openssl_encrypt) distributed via GitHub - despite the name it is unrelated to the OpenSSL library. The flaw is a CWE-20 improper input validation issue: the email field of an imported identity document is echoed to the terminal without stripping control characters, so raw ANSI/VT100 escape sequences (cursor movement, line clearing, color codes) are interpreted by the user's terminal emulator. Because the human-verified fingerprint line is printed in the same output stream, an attacker can use escapes to overwrite or reposition text and present a fingerprint that differs from the key actually being trusted, undermining the trust-on-first-use / out-of-band verification model.
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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
Remote unauthenticated delivery (AV:N/PR:N) but the victim must import and view the crafted identity (UI:R); impact is spoofing/verification bypass so I:H, with no direct confidentiality or availability loss.
Primary rating from Vendor (VulnCheck).
CVSS VectorVendor: VulnCheck
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to sanitize the email field of imported identity documents, allowing attackers to inject ANSI escape sequences that forge the fingerprint verification line displayed to users. Attackers can deliver a crafted identity bundle through normal contact-exchange flows or keyserver responses to manipulate terminal output and display a fraudulent fingerprint, bypassing the out-of-band verification mechanism that protects against key substitution attacks.
Executive ViewAI
A critical vulnerability in jahlives openssl_encrypt allows remote attackers to forge cryptographic key fingerprints, defeating the verification mechanisms that prevent man-in-the-middle attacks on encrypted communications. Organizations using this tool for key exchange face immediate compromise risk with no vendor patch currently available. Leadership should prioritize isolating affected systems and deploying alternative key verification procedures.
No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations include: immediately disable key exchange functionality and route all key distribution through pre-established secure out-of-band channels with mandatory fingerprint verification via phone or in-person contact; restrict tool network access to trusted internal segments only; implement monitoring and logging of key imports to detect exploitation attempts; and consider operational suspension of the tool entirely until patch availability is confirmed.
Threat Intelligence Overview
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
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
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EUVD-2026-67063
GHSA-fhj3-wp77-vmvw
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Exploit-DB