Affects a widely used cryptographic library allowing silent integrity bypass; broad impact across applications that use AES-GCM.
CVE-2026-74901
AES-GCM authentication bypass via fallback to AES-CTR allows undetected ciphertext tampering.
Is CVE-2026-74901 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-74901 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.23% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-74901?
CVE-2026-74901 is rated Critical with a CVSS score of 9.3. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-74901?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-74901. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-74901 affect?
CVE-2026-74901 affects openssl_encrypt <1.4.0, pqc.py AES-GCM implementation, Applications using openssl_encrypt for AES-GCM AEAD. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-74901?
Upgrade to openssl_encrypt >=1.4.0, apply vendor patch, rotate keys/tokens
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Attackers can modify ciphertext in transit to bypass AES-GCM integrity, perform undetected bit-flipping and tamper plaintext, enabling data corruption or auth bypass.
Immediate action required
- affected< 1.4.0
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.