CVE-2026-54876: Software Security Vulnerability Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-5cfw-78wc-wvjq
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CVSS 7.5
CWE-401
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-54876 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) security vulnerability vulnerability (CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime) affecting Software libraries in the Maven ecosystem. The weakness occurs when the product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse.. Remediation is available in the latest vendor maintenance releases.

CVE-2026-54876 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-54876
GHSA Identifier GHSA-5cfw-78wc-wvjq
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
Affected Product Software
Package Ecosystem Maven
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2026-54876

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Software dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

mvn dependency:tree

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Java application is affected by CVE-2026-54876, inspect your build dependencies using the Maven Dependency Plugin:

mvn dependency:tree

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Software in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than the patched release), your application is affected.

Note: The mvn dependency:tree command inspects the resolved dependency graph declared in your project's POM files; it does not perform automated security scanning or inspect runtime dynamic classpaths. Always verify runtime container classpaths and shaded JARs.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime, where the product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse. In Software, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

Issue summary: A malicious TLS server can cause a memory leak in a TLS client that has enabled OCSP response checking by sending an OCSP response that contains no single response entries. Impact summary: An attacker can leak an attacker-tunable amount of memory per TLS handshake in a victim client application. A long-running client that repeatedly connects to a malicious server can have its memory exhausted, resulting in a Denial of Service. CWE: CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime Description: The affected function is called during X.509 certificate chain verification when OCSP response checking is enabled with the X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK or X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK_ALL verification flags, for example when a TLS client verifies an OCSP response stapled into the TLS handshake by the server. When the received BasicOCSPResponse contains an empty SEQUENCE OF SingleResponse, which is permitted on the wire and accepted by the OpenSSL decoder, the OCSP_BASICRESP structure allocated by OCSP_response_get1_basic() was not freed because an early return bypassed the cleanup code at the end of the function. The amount of memory leaked per handshake can be amplified by the attacker by padding the certs field of the BasicOCSPResponse with bogus certificates, which are parsed and stored in the leaked structure before the empty response check triggers the early return. A long-running TLS client that repeatedly connects to a malicious server can have its memory exhausted over time. OCSP response checking is not enabled by default. Only client applications that explicitly enable the OCSP response check verification flags are affected. FIPS impact: no The FIPS modules in 4.0 and 3.6 are not affected by this issue as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

References

NVD — CVE-2026-54876 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54876
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/155b5fe0f93365e6df1c56ee3606b121080c6c12
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/d8c51048ac037a21bae0f41cad7a3920dc7f3638
openssl-library.org/news/secadv/2026080... WEB
https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260805.txt
Software Security Information SECURITY
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/05/8

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-54876?
CVE-2026-54876 is a security vulnerability in Software classified as a security vulnerability vulnerability under CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime.
Which Software versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to current release patches.
What version fixes CVE-2026-54876?
Upgrading to current release patches (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-54876?
CVE-2026-54876 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-54876?
CVE-2026-54876 is classified under CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, making the memory unavailable for reallocation and reuse.).
How can I check Maven dependencies for CVE-2026-54876?
Run the dependency tree command: 'mvn dependency:tree'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
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  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-5cfw-78wc-wvjq",
  "modified" : "2026-08-05T21:31:36Z",
  "published" : "2026-08-05T15:32:22Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-54876" ],
  "details" : "Issue summary: A malicious TLS server can cause a memory leak in a TLS\nclient that has enabled OCSP response checking by sending an OCSP\nresponse that contains no single response entries.\n\nImpact summary: An attacker can leak an attacker-tunable amount of memory\nper TLS handshake in a victim client application. A long-running client\nthat repeatedly connects to a malicious server can have its memory\nexhausted, resulting in a Denial of Service.\n\nCWE: CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime\n\nDescription: The affected function is called during X.509 certificate\nchain verification when OCSP response checking is enabled\nwith the X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK or X509_V_FLAG_OCSP_RESP_CHECK_ALL\nverification flags, for example when a TLS client verifies an OCSP\nresponse stapled into the TLS handshake by the server.\n\nWhen the received BasicOCSPResponse contains an empty SEQUENCE OF\nSingleResponse, which is permitted on the wire and accepted by the\nOpenSSL decoder, the OCSP_BASICRESP structure allocated by\nOCSP_response_get1_basic() was not freed because an early return\nbypassed the cleanup code at the end of the function.\n\nThe amount of memory leaked per handshake can be amplified by the\nattacker by padding the certs field of the BasicOCSPResponse with\nbogus certificates, which are parsed and stored in the leaked\nstructure before the empty response check triggers the early return.\nA long-running TLS client that repeatedly connects to a malicious\nserver can have its memory exhausted over time.\n\nOCSP response checking is not enabled by default. Only client\napplications that explicitly enable the OCSP response check\nverification flags are affected.\n\nFIPS impact: no\n\nThe FIPS modules in 4.0 and 3.6 are not affected by this issue as the\naffected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54876"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/155b5fe0f93365e6df1c56ee3606b121080c6c12"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/d8c51048ac037a21bae0f41cad7a3920dc7f3638"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260805.txt"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/05/8"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-401" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : false,
    "github_reviewed_at" : null,
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-08-05T15:16:53Z"
  }
}