OCSP responder certificate validity period not checked in public_key (Erlang OTP)
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.32 % · percentile 24 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- EEF
- NVD status
- Modified
Description
Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability in Erlang OTP public_key (pubkey_ocsp module) allows forged OCSP responses signed with an expired responder certificate to be accepted as valid. OCSP response verification in pubkey_ocsp:verify_response/5 and pubkey_ocsp:is_authorized_responder/3 in lib/public_key/src/pubkey_ocsp.erl does not check the validity period (notBefore/notAfter) of the OCSP responder certificate. An attacker who has obtained the private key of an expired CA-designated OCSP responder certificate can forge OCSP responses that Erlang/OTP accepts as valid. This affects TLS clients using OCSP stapling via the ssl application: a malicious or compromised server can present a revoked TLS certificate together with a forged OCSP response signed by an expired responder key, and the client will accept the revoked certificate as valid. It also affects applications calling public_key:pkix_ocsp_validate/5 directly, where the impact depends on the use case — server-side client certificate validation using this API may allow authentication bypass with a revoked client certificate. This issue affects OTP from OTP 27.0 before OTP 29.0.1, OTP 28.5.0.1 and OTP 27.3.4.12, corresponding to public_key from 1.16 before 1.21.1, 1.20.3.1 and 1.17.1.3.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-295 — Improper Certificate Validation
- CWE-672 — Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release
References
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-cjxj-wj6x-3fff
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-42791.html
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-42791
- https://www.erlang.org/doc/system/versions.html#order-of-versions
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/7995f1fdaee3da569bb810358ce0f546471d169b
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/b3870e02405c709a872b01ba6086065620cdfe76
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 4.0 | MEDIUM 6.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N | EEF |
| CVSS 4.0 | MEDIUM 6.3 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/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 | NVD · 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db (Secondary) |
| CVSS 3.1 | LOW 3.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N | NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary) |
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-32273
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2026-42791
Affected configurations (NVD CPE)
cpe:2.3:a:erlang:erlang\/otp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*≥ 27.0 < 27.3.4.12cpe:2.3:a:erlang:erlang\/otp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*≥ 28.0 < 28.5.0.1cpe:2.3:a:erlang:erlang\/otp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*≥ 29.0 < 29.0.1
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| Erlang · OTP | affected 1.16 < * |
| Erlang · OTP | affected 27.0 < * ; affected 2b1a742c651b90f8a7a1fb2ddde73f29915ea376 < * |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |