CVE-2026-77205

Denial of Service via sending bogus X.509 certificates

Published Oct 13, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 3.7 Low EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Libreswan in FIPS mode has a vulnerability where badly formed received certificates are rejected, but not deleted from the NSS cache. As a result, any real certificates with the same serial number are rejected as well. This can be abused to lock out legitimate peers from connecting. The add_decoded_cert() function missed a call to CERT_DestroyCertificate() due to an incorrect fix for CVE-2026-14957. Sending bogus certificates with new serial numbers could prevent the real certificates with those serial numbers from connecting until the service has restarted.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade to libreswan 5.3.3 or later. Patches are available at https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-77205/


Vendor Workaround

Disabling FIPS mode will prevent this attack vector. If this is not possible, upgrade to a later libreswan version or apply the available patch.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', '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 in FIPS mode has a vulnerability where badly formed received certificates are rejected, but not deleted from the NSS cache. As a result, any real certificates with the same serial number are rejected as well. This can be abused to lock out legitimate peers from connecting. The add_decoded_cert() function missed a call to CERT_DestroyCertificate() due to an incorrect fix for CVE-2026-14957. Sending bogus certificates with new serial numbers could prevent the real certificates with those serial numbers from connecting until the service has restarted.
Title Denial of Service via sending bogus X.509 certificates
Weaknesses CWE-772
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 3.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
libreswan
Published
Updated
Oct 16, 2026, 3:31 PM
Reserved
Aug 20, 2026, 6:13 PM
Status
Awaiting Analysis
Published
Oct 13, 2026, 10:18 PM
Modified
Oct 16, 2026, 7:55 PM
Severity
Low
Public date
Oct 5, 2026, 12:00 AM