CVE-2026-50721

IKEv1 Denial of Service via RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5 Encrypted) authentication payload

Published Jul 2, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 8.1 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Libreswan, via the function RSA_authenticate_hash_signature_raw_rsa(), did not correctly verify the length of the authentication hash when the SIG payload of an IKEv1 packet was encoded using PKCS #1 RSA Encryption as per RFC 2313. A remote attacker can use a variation on the Bleichenbacher attack to forge the SIG payload when small public exponents are being used (e.g., e=3), which could lead to impersonation. Additionally, a remote attacker, by encoding a shorter than expected hash in the SIG payload, could trigger an assertion leading to denial-of-service. The daemon aborts and restarts; continued exploitation causes sustained denial of service. Remote code execution is not possible. X.509 certificate verifications of remote IKE peers are not affected.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade to libreswan 5.3.1 or later. Patches for libreswan 4.15 and 5.3 are available at https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/


Vendor Workaround

IKEv1 only supports RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5) with public key authentication, so there is no way to disable the vulnerable code path within IKEv1. Migrate IKEv1 connections to IKEv2 where authby=ecdsa or authby=rsa-sha2 can be configured. For static tunnel configurations (not Remote Access VPN Client groups), authentication can be changed to use PSK via authby=secret after coordination with the remote peer.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Libreswan
Libreswan libreswan
Vendors & Products Libreswan
Libreswan libreswan
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Libreswan, via the function RSA_authenticate_hash_signature_raw_rsa(), did not correctly verify the length of the authentication hash when the SIG payload of an IKEv1 packet was encoded using PKCS #1 RSA Encryption as per RFC 2313. A remote attacker can use a variation on the Bleichenbacher attack to forge the SIG payload when small public exponents are being used (e.g., e=3), which could lead to impersonation. Additionally, a remote attacker, by encoding a shorter than expected hash in the SIG payload, could trigger an assertion leading to denial-of-service. The daemon aborts and restarts; continued exploitation causes sustained denial of service. Remote code execution is not possible. X.509 certificate verifications of remote IKE peers are not affected.
Title IKEv1 Denial of Service via RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5 Encrypted) authentication payload
Weaknesses CWE-347
CWE-617
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
libreswan
Published
Updated
Jul 7, 2026, 5:01 PM
Reserved
Jun 5, 2026, 4:10 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Jul 2, 2026, 10:16 PM
Modified
Oct 25, 2026, 9:10 PM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
Jun 24, 2026, 12:00 AM