CVE-2026-5501

April 10, 2026, 4:17 a.m.

8.6
High

Description

wolfSSL_X509_verify_cert in the OpenSSL compatibility layer accepts a certificate chain in which the leaf's signature is not checked, if the attacker supplies an untrusted intermediate with Basic Constraints `CA:FALSE` that is legitimately signed by a trusted root. An attacker who obtains any leaf certificate from a trusted CA (e.g. a free DV cert from Let's Encrypt) can forge a certificate for any subject name with any public key and arbitrary signature bytes, and the function returns `WOLFSSL_SUCCESS` / `X509_V_OK`. The native wolfSSL TLS handshake path (`ProcessPeerCerts`) is not susceptible and the issue is limited to applications using the OpenSSL compatibility API directly, which would include integrations of wolfSSL into nginx and haproxy.

Product(s) Impacted

Vendor Product Versions
Wolfssl
  • Wolfssl
  • *
Nginx
  • Nginx
  • *
Haproxy
  • Haproxy
  • *

Weaknesses

Common security weaknesses mapped to this vulnerability.

CWE-295
Improper Certificate Validation
The product does not validate, or incorrectly validates, a certificate.

*CPE(s)

Affected systems and software identified for this CVE.

Type Vendor Product Version Update Edition Language Software Edition Target Software Target Hardware Other Information
a wolfssl wolfssl / / / / / / / /
a nginx nginx / / / / / / / /
a haproxy haproxy / / / / / / / /

References

https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/pull/10102

Tags

CWE-295
[email protected]
2026-04-10
CVE-2026-5501

CVSS Score

8.6 / 10

CVSS Data - 4.0

  • Attack Vector: NETWORK
  • Attack Complexity: LOW
  • Attack Requirements: NONE
  • Privileges Required: LOW
  • User Interaction: NONE
  • Scope:
  • Confidentiality Impact: HIGH
  • Integrity Impact: HIGH
  • Availability Impact: NONE
  • Exploit Maturity: NOT_DEFINED

    • CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

    View Vector String

Timeline

Published: April 10, 2026, 4:17 a.m.
Last Modified: April 10, 2026, 4:17 a.m.

Status : Received

CVE has been recently published to the CVE List and has been received by the NVD.

More info

Source

[email protected]

*Disclaimer: Some vulnerabilities do not have an associated CPE. To enhance the data, we use AI to infer CPEs based on CVE details. This is an automated process and might not always be accurate.