Executive Summary

Double free vulnerability in OpenSSL 0.9.7 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via an SSL client certificate with a certain invalid ASN.1 encoding.

Why It Matters

CVE-2003-0545 is rated CRITICAL severity, requiring immediate attention from security teams.

CVSS Base Score: 9.8/10

Affected Technologies

Vendors: openssl

Products: openssl

🛡️What Defenders Should Check

Check if you are affected — Review your asset inventory for products listed in CVE-2003-0545.

Apply available patches — Visit vendor advisories for the latest security updates.

Monitor for exploitation — Check your SIEM/IDS logs for related indicators.

Use Vulnios to continuously monitor your exposure to CVE-2003-0545 and similar vulnerabilities.

References & Sources

http://secunia.com/advisories/22249

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21247112

http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2003-26.html

http://www.debian.org/security/2003/dsa-394

http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/935264

http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2003-292.html

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/8732

http://www.uniras.gov.uk/vuls/2003/006489/openssl.htm

http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2006/3900

https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A2590

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Affected Products

openssl

Sources

NVD / NIST

criticaldos

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Critical Vulnerability: CVE-2003-0545 — openssl — openssl