CVE-2026-81720

MEDIUMPre-NVD 6.26.2—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score 6.2 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2026-08-27. a secondary CVSS source baseline 6.2; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, secondary
Trending — 3 sources updated this week
6.2EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS: 6.2Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate the memory_cost parameter from identity file protection blocks, allowing attackers to trigger out-of-memory conditions during key derivation. Attackers with write access to local identity stores can craft malicious identity files with excessive memory_cost values that cause the host to crash when unlocking identities before authentication.

CVSS v3
6.2
EG Score
6.2(high)
EG Risk
28(Track)
EG Risk 28/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity62% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
3%
KEV
Not listed

Published

August 27, 2026

Last Modified

September 3, 2026

Advisory Details (2)

Auto-updated Aug 27, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github.
generic

openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9 Denial of Service via Unbounded Argon2 | Advisories | VulnCheck

https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/openssl-encrypt-before-1.4.9-denial-of-service-via-unbounded-argon2
github Patch Available

Pre-authentication memory-exhaustion DoS via unbounded Argon2 memory_cost in identity-file protection block · Advisory · jahlives/openssl_encrypt · GitHub

https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt/security/advisories/GHSA-783h-8q2f-f762

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-81720(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
PyPI(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
openssl-encrypt0.2.2 ... 1.4.8 (53 versions)1.4.9—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 16× in last 7d / 62× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-09-18 22:51 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-09-18 22:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-09-18 19:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-17 20:54 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-09-17 20:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-09-16 14:45 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-09-16 14:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-09-16 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-09-16 05:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-09-15 12:48 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-09-15 12:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-15 03:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-15 03:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-09-14 10:51 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-09-14 10:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-09-13 08:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-09-12 06:57 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-09-12 06:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-09-11 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-09-11 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-09-11 05:00 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-09-11 05:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-09-10 03:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-09-09 01:05 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-09-09 01:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 37 more
  1. 2026-09-08 22:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-07 23:08 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-09-07 23:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-09-06 21:10 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-09-06 21:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-09-06 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-09-05 19:13 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-09-05 19:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-09-05 15:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-09-04 17:16 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-09-04 17:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-04 05:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-03 15:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-09-03 00:48 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-09-03 00:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-09-02 14:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-09-01 22:51 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-09-01 22:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-09-01 13:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-09-01 04:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-09-01 04:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-08-31 20:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-08-31 00:37 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-08-31 00:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-08-30 19:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-08-30 01:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-08-29 22:40 UTCEG score recompute
  29. 2026-08-29 22:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  30. 2026-08-28 21:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-08-28 20:43 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-08-28 20:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-08-28 19:23 UTCEG score recompute
  34. 2026-08-28 19:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  35. 2026-08-27 17:24 UTCEG score recompute
  36. 2026-08-27 16:47 UTCEG score recompute
  37. 2026-08-27 16:43 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-81720?
CVE-2026-81720 is a medium vulnerability published on August 27, 2026. opensslencrypt before 1.4.9 fails to validate the memorycost parameter from identity file protection blocks, allowing attackers to trigger out-of-memory conditions during key derivation. Attackers with write access to local identity stores can craft malicious identity files with excessive…
When was CVE-2026-81720 disclosed?
CVE-2026-81720 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on August 27, 2026, with the most recent update on September 3, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-81720 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-81720 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 97.3% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-81720?
CVE-2026-81720 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.2 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-81720?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-81720, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2026-81720

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