Threats / OpenSSL / CVE-2014-0160
CVE-2014-0160
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
OpenSSL vulnerability
OpenSSL's TLS and DTLS implementations fail to properly validate Heartbeat Extension packets, allowing remote attackers to read sensitive memory contents without authentication.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A remote attacker can exploit improper heartbeat packet handling to extract cryptographic keys, session tokens, and other sensitive data from process memory. No authentication or user interaction required. Affects all versions of OpenSSL with the Heartbeat extension enabled.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-05-044EPSS 0.99999 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 7.5 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Impact: partial3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
14 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-05-04).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99999 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N) · Affected: OpenSSL, OpenSSL. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-125 Out-of-bounds Read — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical Impact: partialCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 2949 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malformed Heartbeat request packet to trigger an out-of-bounds memory read in the target's OpenSSL process.
Business
Exposed cryptographic keys and session credentials enable account takeover and traffic decryption across the organization's encrypted communications.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I repeatedly send heartbeat packets to leak adjacent memory regions containing private keys and authentication tokens.
Business
Compromised certificate material and session data undermine the integrity of all TLS-protected services and customer trust in security posture.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I extract sufficient key material to decrypt previously captured encrypted traffic or forge new authenticated sessions.
Business
Historical and ongoing data breaches expose customer PII, financial records, and intellectual property with regulatory and reputational consequences.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05