Summary
pyca/cryptography's wheels include a statically linked copy of OpenSSL. The versions of OpenSSL included in wheels prior to cryptograph 48.01 are vulnerable to a security issue. More details about the vulnerability itself can be found in https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260609.txt.
If you are building cryptography source ("sdist") then you are responsible for upgrading your copy of OpenSSL. Only users installing from wheels built by the cryptography project (i.e., those distributed on PyPI) need to update their cryptography versions.
Impact
A read operation accesses a memory location beyond the intended buffer boundary. Typical impact: sensitive data disclosure or crash.
GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (48.0.1); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Remediation advice
Kodem Kai can prioritize this vulnerability in your dependency tree and generate a fix recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF? GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF is a high-severity out-of-bounds read vulnerability in cryptography (pip), affecting versions >= 0.5.0, < 48.0.1. It is fixed in 48.0.1. A read operation accesses a memory location beyond the intended buffer boundary.
- How severe is GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF? GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of cryptography are affected by GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF? cryptography (pip) versions >= 0.5.0, < 48.0.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF? Yes. GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF is fixed in 48.0.1. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix GHSA-537C-GMF6-5CCF? Upgrade
cryptographyto 48.0.1 or later.