CVE-2026-42769 | Trust-Anchor Substitution via cert/issuer Typo in CMP rootCaKeyUpdate

Issue Summary: An error in the callback used to verify the certificate provided in a Root CA key update Certificate Management Protocol (CMP) message response rendered the certificate validation ineffectual, which could lead to escalation of credentials from the Registration Authority (RA) level to the root Certification Authority (root CA) level. Impact Summary: The Registration Autority could replace the root CA certificate for the CMP clients with an arbitrary root CA certificate. One of the parts of the Certificate Management Protocol (CMP), specified in RFC 9810, is Root Certification Authority (root CA) key Rollover, which is sent by the server in a message with type 'id-it-rootCaKeyUpdate'. As part of these messages, 'newWithOld' certificate, the new root CA certificate signed with the old root CA key, is provided, and verifying its signature is crucial for transferring the trust from the old CA key to the new one. The 'id-it-rootCaKeyUpdate' messages are expected to be processed with OSSL_CMP_get1_rootCaKeyUpdate(), that is expected to verify the 'newWithOld' certificate. A typo in the certificate chain building code led to adding an incorrect certificate ('newWithOld' instead of 'oldRoot') to the certificate chain, rendering the certificate verification process ineffectual (only the issuer name and the algorithm OIDs were verified by other parts of the verification code). An attacker who already has credentials that satisfy the CMP message protection checks can generate a new key pair and use a crafted self-signed certificate in its 'id-it-rootCaKeyUpdate' CMP messages which affected CMP clients would accept as a new trust anchor. Significant preconditions for the attack (having valid RA-level credentials) are the reason the issue was assigned Low severity. The FIPS modules are not affected by this issue, as the affected code is outside the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.

Published: 2026-06-09 Last update: 2026-06-10 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Awaiting Analysis，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-42769 is rated Low Risk (21.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-42769

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-10 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42769

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.6 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42769

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42769

GHSA-rpj2-p5pj-r33v · Severity: medium — Issue Summary: An error in the callback used to verify the certificate provided in a Root CA key...

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-42769

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2026-42769 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (openssl), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-42769
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42769
suse medium CVE-2026-42769 severity moderate: SUSE including 51 source package names (compat-openssl098, libopenssl-1_0_0-devel, …), 293 product×package rows across 35 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 10, SUSE Liberty Linux 9, … (35 product lines)): Known Not Affected 279, Fixed 8, First Fixed 6. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42769/
ubuntu low CVE-2026-42769 low priority: Ubuntu including 5 source packages (edk2, nodejs, openssl, openssl-fips, openssl1.0), 35 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 19, needs-triage 7, DNE 6, released 2, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-42769

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42769

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2026-42769

cvelogic Threat Intelligence