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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.1

CVE-2026-35199 json

SymCrypt SymCryptXmssSign function - Heap overflow via 64->32-bit leaf-count truncation

published 2026-04-06 7 mo ago modified 2026-07-24 3 mo ago also EUVD-2026-19472

cvss
6.1
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 21%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

SymCrypt is the core cryptographic function library currently used by Windows. From 103.5.0 to before 103.11.0, The SymCryptXmssSign function passes a 64-bit leaf count value to a helper function that accepts a 32-bit parameter. For XMSS^MT parameter sets with total tree height >= 32 (which includes standard predefined parameters), this causes silent truncation to zero, resulting in a drastically undersized scratch buffer allocation followed by a heap buffer overflow during signature computation. Exploiting this issue would require an application using SymCrypt to perform an XMSS^MT signature using an attacker-controlled parameter set. It is uncommon for applications to allow the use of attacker-controlled parameter sets for signing, since signing is a private key operation, and private keys must be trusted by definition. Additionally, XMSS(^MT) signing should only be performed in a Hardware Security Module (HSM). XMSS(^MT) signing is provided in SymCrypt only for testing purposes. This is a general rule irrespective of this CVE; XMSS(^MT) and other stateful signature schemes are only cryptographically secure when it is guaranteed that the same state cannot be reused for two different signatures, which cannot be guaranteed by software alone. For this reason, XMSS(^MT) signing is also not FIPS approved when performed outside of an HSM. Fixed in version 103.11.0.

Patch / fix

  • microsoft symcrypt 103.11.0

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
7 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 21% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

Affected products

  • microsoft SymCrypt

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.