VulnerabilityPublished 13 Aug 2026Updated 31 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-59885: pyasn1 · Quadratic complexity in OBJECT IDENTIFIER and RELATIVE-OID processing allows denial of service

Affects otermSource GCVE Database

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 0.20.0_1 soon.

Data as of 1 Nov 2026, 01:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Patch: Available – fixed in 0.20.0_1

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 13 Aug 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 31 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade oterm to 0.20.0_1.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewoterm`pkg:brew/oterm`Other threats	Affected >=0.15.0 <0.20.0_1	Fixed in 0.20.0_1

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Upgrade pyasn1 to version 0.20.0_1 or later where the vulnerability is fixed. As a workaround, limit the size of untrusted ASN.1 input before decoding to reduce exposure to this issue.

Description

A denial of service vulnerability exists in pyasn1 versions >=0.15.0 and <0.20.0_1 due to quadratic time complexity in processing OBJECT IDENTIFIER and RELATIVE-OID values during ASN.1 decoding and encoding. This allows crafted payloads with many arcs to consume excessive CPU resources. The issue is fixed in version 0.20.0_1.

Impact

An attacker can cause denial of service by sending crafted ASN.1 data with OBJECT IDENTIFIERs or RELATIVE-OIDs containing many arcs, leading to excessive CPU consumption during decoding or encoding. This affects any application using vulnerable pyasn1 versions to process untrusted ASN.1 data, potentially disrupting services relying on certificate parsing, LDAP, SNMP, or Kerberos.

Summary

The BER/CER/DER decoders and encoders in pyasn1 process OBJECT IDENTIFIER and RELATIVE-OID values with quadratic time complexity relative to the number of arcs. This inefficiency can be exploited by sending ASN.1 data containing OIDs with many arcs, causing high CPU usage and denial of service in applications decoding untrusted ASN.1 data such as certificates, LDAP, SNMP, and Kerberos. The arc-size limit from a previous CVE does not mitigate this issue because it does not limit the number of arcs. The vulnerability affects ObjectIdentifierPayloadDecoder and RelativeOIDPayloadDecoder in the BER codec and their encoder counterparts, with CER and DER codecs also impacted. The issue is resolved in pyasn1 version 0.20.0_1 where arc accumulation now runs in linear time.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 1 Nov 2026, 01:52 UTC

Technical details

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