Y2
Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2026-71225

Libkcapi: iv reuse in libkcapi one-shot symmetric cipher chunking causes cipher state reset across chunk boundaries

publishedCWE-330

A flaw was found in libkcapi. When performing one-shot symmetric cipher operations on large inputs (over 64 KiB) in stateful modes such as Counter (CTR) or Cipher Block Chaining (CBC), the library improperly reuses the Initialization Vector (IV) for each internal data chunk. A remote attacker could potentially exploit this by making an application that uses libkcapi process specially crafted large inputs. This can lead to a significant weakening of data confidentiality, as the repeated IV use can expose relationships in encrypted plaintext, and may also affect data integrity by causing incorrect cryptographic processing.

Technical severity6.5 mediumCVSS 3.1 · CNA: redhat
Published2026-08-05Source updated 2026-11-02
Collected2026-11-022 attributed sources

Fixes and workarounds

Workaround

To mitigate this issue, applications using `libkcapi` should avoid the one-shot symmetric cipher APIs for inputs exceeding 64 KiB when continuous-message semantics are critical. Instead, prefer the streaming interface for processing large messages, or ensure one-shot inputs remain below the internal chunking threshold to guarantee the IV is applied consistently throughout the operation.

Source: CNA: redhat

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority
libkcapi
Stephan Muelle
≥ 0.10.1; < 1.5.1 (affected, semver)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Red Hat
libkcapi
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
≥ 0:1.5.1-1.el10_2; < * (unaffected, rpm)
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support
Red Hat
libkcapi
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
≥ 0:1.5.0-6.el10_0; < * (unaffected, rpm)
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Red Hat
libkcapi
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
≥ 0:1.4.0-3.el8_10; < * (unaffected, rpm)
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Red Hat
libkcapi
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
≥ 0:1.4.0-3.el9_8; < * (unaffected, rpm)
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 Extended Update Support
Red Hat
libkcapi
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
≥ 0:1.4.0-2.el9_6.1; < * (unaffected, rpm)
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat Hardened Images
Red Hat
libkcapi-main
https://catalog.redhat.com/software/containers/
≥ 1.5.1-0.1.hum1; < * (unaffected, rpm)
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Red Hat
openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
Range not reported
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Red Hat
openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
Range not reported
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Red Hat
openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/
Range not reported
Other versions: affected
CNA: redhat

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

CVSS scores, vectors and reporting authorities
Version / scoreVectorAuthority
3.1 / 6.5
medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:NCNA: redhat

Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

References