Ad

CVE-2026-5501

HIGH CVSS 4.0: 8.6
Updated Apr 10, 2026
Nginx
Parameter Value
CVSS 8.6 (HIGH)
Type CWE-295 (Improper Certificate Validation)
Vendor Nginx
Public PoC No

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.

Attack Parameters

Attack Vector
Network
Can be exploited remotely
Attack Complexity
Low
Easy to exploit
Attack Requirements
None
No additional conditions
Privileges Required
Low
Basic privileges needed
User Interaction
None
No user interaction needed

Impact Assessment

Confidentiality
High
Complete data leak
Integrity
High
Complete data modification
Availability
None
No disruption

CVSS Vector v4.0