CVE-2026-44378
Botan: Quadratic complexity decoding BER indefinite length encodings
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
Botan: Quadratic complexity decoding BER indefinite length encodings
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
CVE-2026-44378- CVSS 4.0
- 6.9 Medium
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N - Weakness
- CWE-407
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2026-32582
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
EUVD-2026-32582- CVSS 4.0
- 6.9 Medium
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
CVE-2026-44378- CVSS 4.0
- 6.9 Medium
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X - CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-407
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
Botan: Quadratic complexity decoding BER indefinite length encodings
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
CVE-2026-44378- CVSS 4.0
- 6.9 Medium
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N - Weakness
- CWE-407
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2026-44378
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-44378- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVOESA-2026-4213
botan2 security update
Botan is a BSD-licensed crypto library written in C++. It provides a wide variety of basic cryptographic algorithms, X.509 certificates and CRLs, PKCS #10 certificate requests, a filter/pipe message processing system, and a wide variety of other features, all written in portable C++. The API reference, tutorial, and examples may help impart the flavor of the library. This is the current stable release branch 2.x of Botan.
Security Fix(es):
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.(CVE-2026-44378)
- Record
OESA-2026-4213- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
Show 6 moreShow less
OSVOESA-2026-4214
botan2 security update
Botan is a BSD-licensed crypto library written in C++. It provides a wide variety of basic cryptographic algorithms, X.509 certificates and CRLs, PKCS #10 certificate requests, a filter/pipe message processing system, and a wide variety of other features, all written in portable C++. The API reference, tutorial, and examples may help impart the flavor of the library. This is the current stable release branch 2.x of Botan.
Security Fix(es):
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. From version 2.3.0 to before version 3.11.0, during SM2 decryption, the code that checked the authentication code value (C3) failed to check that the encoded value was of the expected length prior to comparison. An invalid ciphertext can cause a heap over-read of up to 31 bytes, resulting in a crash or potentially other undefined behavior. This issue has been patched in version 3.11.0.(CVE-2026-32877)
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.(CVE-2026-44378)
- Record
OESA-2026-4214- CVSS 3.1
- 8.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVOESA-2026-4215
botan2 security update
Botan is a BSD-licensed crypto library written in C++. It provides a wide variety of basic cryptographic algorithms, X.509 certificates and CRLs, PKCS #10 certificate requests, a filter/pipe message processing system, and a wide variety of other features, all written in portable C++. The API reference, tutorial, and examples may help impart the flavor of the library. This is the current stable release branch 2.x of Botan.
Security Fix(es):
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. From version 2.3.0 to before version 3.11.0, during SM2 decryption, the code that checked the authentication code value (C3) failed to check that the encoded value was of the expected length prior to comparison. An invalid ciphertext can cause a heap over-read of up to 31 bytes, resulting in a crash or potentially other undefined behavior. This issue has been patched in version 3.11.0.(CVE-2026-32877)
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.(CVE-2026-44378)
- Record
OESA-2026-4215- CVSS 3.1
- 8.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVOESA-2026-4216
botan2 security update
Botan is a BSD-licensed crypto library written in C++. It provides a wide variety of basic cryptographic algorithms, X.509 certificates and CRLs, PKCS #10 certificate requests, a filter/pipe message processing system, and a wide variety of other features, all written in portable C++. The API reference, tutorial, and examples may help impart the flavor of the library. This is the current stable release branch 2.x of Botan.
Security Fix(es):
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. From version 2.3.0 to before version 3.11.0, during SM2 decryption, the code that checked the authentication code value (C3) failed to check that the encoded value was of the expected length prior to comparison. An invalid ciphertext can cause a heap over-read of up to 31 bytes, resulting in a crash or potentially other undefined behavior. This issue has been patched in version 3.11.0.(CVE-2026-32877)
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.(CVE-2026-44378)
- Record
OESA-2026-4216- CVSS 3.1
- 8.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2026-44378
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2026-44378- CVSS 4.0
- 6.9 Medium
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N - CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVAZL-88802 No score
CVE-2026-44378 affecting package botan2 2.14.0-2
Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.12.0, certain patterns of indefinite length encodings in BER data could cause quadratic behavior in the parser, resulting in a denial of service. Such BER encodings were accepted even in structures which are required to be encoded as DER, which prohibits indefinite length encodings. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.12.0.
- Record
AZL-88802- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2026:11649-1 No score
Botan-3.13.0-1.1 on GA media
These are all security issues fixed in the Botan-3.13.0-1.1 package on the GA media of openSUSE Tumbleweed.
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2026:11649-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
botan2Azure Linux:3 |
through 2.14.0-2 | None known |
botan3Debian:13 |
before 3.12.0+dfsg-2~deb13u1, plus listed versions 3.10.0+dfsg-13.10.0+dfsg-23.11.0+dfsg-13.11.1+dfsg-13.11.1+dfsg-2 Show 6 moreShow less3.12.0+dfsg-13.7.1+dfsg-23.8.1+dfsg-13.9.0+dfsg-13.9.0+dfsg-23.9.0+dfsg-2.1 |
3.12.0+dfsg-2~deb13u1 |
botan3Debian:14 |
before 3.12.0+dfsg-2, plus listed versions 3.10.0+dfsg-13.10.0+dfsg-23.11.0+dfsg-13.11.1+dfsg-13.11.1+dfsg-2 Show 7 moreShow less3.12.0+dfsg-13.12.0+dfsg-2~deb13u13.7.1+dfsg-23.8.1+dfsg-13.9.0+dfsg-13.9.0+dfsg-23.9.0+dfsg-2.1 |
3.12.0+dfsg-2 |
botan2openEuler:24.03-LTS-SP4 |
before 2.19.3-7.oe2403sp4 | 2.19.3-7.oe2403sp4 |
botan2openEuler:22.03-LTS-SP4 |
before 2.19.3-6.oe2203sp4 | 2.19.3-6.oe2203sp4 |
botan2openEuler:24.03-LTS-SP1 |
before 2.19.3-7.oe2403sp1 | 2.19.3-7.oe2403sp1 |
botan2openEuler:24.03-LTS-SP3 |
before 2.19.3-7.oe2403sp3 | 2.19.3-7.oe2403sp3 |
botan3Ubuntu:25.10 |
All versions, plus listed versions 3.7.1+dfsg-2 |
None known |
botan3Ubuntu:26.10 |
All versions, plus listed versions 3.10.0+dfsg-23.11.1+dfsg-23.12.0+dfsg-2 |
None known |
botan3Ubuntu:26.04:LTS |
All versions, plus listed versions 3.7.1+dfsg-23.10.0+dfsg-2 |
None known |
BotanopenSUSE:Tumbleweed |
before 3.13.0-1.1 | 3.13.0-1.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| first indexed | CVE List, EUVD, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2026-44378 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.9) in Botan Project Botan, published May 27, 2026. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.32%, the 25th percentile. Fixed in botan3 3.12.0+dfsg-2~deb13u1.
References
github.com/randombit/botan/security/advisories/GHSA-7q2v-3g27-6g3j
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44378
security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-44378
openeuler.org/zh/security/security-bulletins/detail?id=openEuler-SA-2026-4213