CVE-2026-74873Medium▾ Sunlitopenssl-encrypt has visible password in process list via --password CLI argument
▾ Sunlit zone — Low / medium · no exploitation signal
impact 27.5 · likelihood 0 · exploitation 0
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Exploit-prediction probability, daily snapshots since Aug 18.
Disclosure to exploitation, from the record and what we observed since indexing it.
Disclosed via OSV
Last analysed / modified upstream
0.2%
Passwords passed via the --password / -p CLI argument in openssl_encrypt/modules/crypt_cli_subparser.py at lines 150-154 are visible to any user on the system via ps aux or /proc/[pid]/cmdline.
subparser.add_argument(
"--password", "-p",
help="Password (will prompt if not provided, or use CRYPT_PASSWORD environment variable)",
)
Similarly, --keystore-password exposes the keystore password.
On multi-user systems, any user can observe the encryption password by listing processes. The CRYPT_PASSWORD environment variable alternative is also visible via /proc/[pid]/environ (though with slightly restricted access).
--password-fd) or reading from stdinFixed in commit e78a366 on branch releases/1.4.x — added --password-file and --password-fd arguments; added OPENSSL_ENCRYPT_PASSWORD env var support; --password now emits deprecation warning.
openssl-encrypt < 1.4.0Upgrade to a patched release:
openssl-encrypt 1.4.0Connected by shared product, vendor, weakness, or advisory.
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