Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-81691 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-81691 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-81691?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.5, published 27 August 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- openssl-encrypt (PyPI) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=1.4.9.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-81691?
- Yes. openssl-encrypt (PyPI): upgrade to 1.4.9 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-81691 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-81691?
- Check whether you run Jahlives Openssl Encrypt or openssl-encrypt (PyPI) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
How to fix
- openssl-encrypt (PyPI): upgrade to 1.4.9 or later
pip install "openssl-encrypt>=1.4.9"
Technical details
The vulnerability is a cleartext transmission issue (CWE-319) in the keyserver plugin's login() and register_with_email() functions. While register() enforces HTTPS, login() and register_with_email() do not validate that the server URL uses HTTPS or matches the configured servers; certificate pinning is only applied when the HTTPS prefix is present. An attacker positioned on the network path can intercept credentials sent in cleartext over HTTP, including client_id (which alone grants access/refresh tokens), stored passwords, and returned JWTs, achieving full account takeover. The fix in version 1.4.9 introduces a shared _validate_server_url() validator that enforces HTTPS and membership in config.servers before any request is constructed, preventing credential leakage by refusing to make requests to invalid endpoints.
Affected products
- openssl_encrypt openssl_encrypt before 1.4.9
Identifiers
- CVE-2026-81691
- PYSEC-2026-3797
Timeline
- 2026-08-12: disclosed: GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-xr64-hcxg-4ghr) published
- 2026-08-27: advisory: CVE-2026-81691 and NVD entry published
- 2026: patched: Version 1.4.9 released with fix