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CVE-2026-5501

HighCVSS 8.6 / 10
Published Apr 10, 2026·Last modified Jul 16, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

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.

Risk Scores
Base Score
8.6

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs basic access or low-level privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability.

Threat Intelligence
6.2

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
0.18%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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