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TI-2026-31010 Aliases CVE-2026-42790

nameConstraints DNS bypass via subject CommonName fallback in public_key hostname verification

Priority LOW 35CWE-295Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Passive
Attack complexity
High
Attack requirements
Present
Impact type
Spoofing
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
High · High · None
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 3 fixed, 1 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-295.

Summary

Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability in Erlang OTP public_key (pubkey_cert and public_key modules) allows a DNS nameConstraints bypass via subject CommonName fallback in TLS hostname verification. Two flaws combine to allow a subordinate CA whose DNS nameConstraints are restricted (e.g. permitted;DNS:allowed.example.com) to issue a leaf certificate that an OTP TLS client accepts as a valid identity for an out-of-scope hostname (e.g. victim.example.com): First, pubkey_cert:validate_names/6 in lib/public_key/src/pubkey_cert.erl only checks SAN DNS entries against nameConstraints. Per RFC 5280, a permitted DNS subtree only restricts certificates that contain a DNS-typed name. A leaf with no subjectAltName therefore trivially satisfies any permitted;DNS:... constraint regardless of its subject commonName. Second, public_key:pkix_verify_hostname/3 in lib/public_key/src/public_key.erl falls back to the subject commonName when no subjectAltName is present, extracting id-at-commonName attributes as presented IDs and matching them against the reference hostname. The strict pkix_verify_hostname_match_fun(https) matcher does not suppress this fallback. The result is that path validation accepts a CN-only leaf under a DNS-constrained intermediate (no SAN means the nameConstraints are not triggered), and hostname verification then accepts it via the CN fallback. The bypass is reachable from stock ssl:connect with verify_peer, a trusted CA, SNI, and the canonical strict https hostname matcher. This issue affects OTP from OTP 19.3 before OTP 29.0.1, OTP 28.5.0.1, OTP 27.3.4.12 and OTP 26.2.5.21, corresponding to public_key from 1.4 before 1.21.1, 1.20.3.1, 1.17.1.3 and 1.15.1.7.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00345 28th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Red Hat: 3 advisoriesRed Hat: 3 fixed, 1 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Total

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
ErlangOTP1.4 and later—No fix listedCNA
ErlangOTP19.3 and later—No fix listedCNA
  • OTP VendorErlang Affected 1.4 and later Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
  • OTP VendorErlang Affected 19.3 and later Fixed in — No fix listed CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:erlang:erlang\/otp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*19.3 to before 26.2.5.21; 27.0 to before 27.3.4.12; 28.0 to before 28.5.0.1; 29.0 to before 29.0.1VulnerableErlang
  • cpe:2.3:a:erlang:erlang\/otp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 19.3 to before 26.2.5.21; 27.0 to before 27.3.4.12; 28.0 to before 28.5.0.1; 29.0 to before 29.0.1 Vulnerable ·Erlang

Remediation

Red Hat 3 advisories

  • RHSA-2026:63160 Released 2026-09-03 · Red Hat rating Important
    Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs bug fix and enhancement update
    • Red Hat Hardened Images erlang27-27.3.4.17-1.hum1@aarch64, erlang27-27.3.4.17-1.hum1@src, erlang27-27.3.4.17-1.hum1@x86_64 +47
  • RHSA-2026:54757 Released 2026-08-13 · Red Hat rating Important
    Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 security advisory
    • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 collectd-sensubility-0.2.1-1.1.el8ost, erlang-23.3.4.18-2.el8ost, erlang-asn1-23.3.4.18-2.el8ost +41
  • RHSA-2026:39809 Released 2026-07-15 · Red Hat rating Important
    Red Hat OpenStack Services on OpenShift 18.0 (erlang) security update
    • Red Hat OpenStack Services on OpenShift 18.0 erlang-26.2.5.21-2.el9ost, erlang-asn1-26.2.5.21-2.el9ost, erlang-compiler-26.2.5.21-2.el9ost +17

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1AffectedNo fix yet
Red Hat Hardened ImagesFixed RHSA-2026:63160
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2Fixed RHSA-2026:54757
Red Hat OpenStack Services on OpenShift 18.0Fixed RHSA-2026:39809
Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-42790

References

  • TI-2025-23504 Erlang/OTP SSH Vulnerable to Pre-Authentication RCE KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 10.0
  • TI-2023-26623 The SSH transport protocol with certain OpenSSH extensions, found in OpenSSH before 9.6… CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.9
  • TI-2017-14604 The Erlang otp TLS server answers with different TLS alerts to different error types in… CVSS 3.0MEDIUM 5.9
  • TI-2026-36669 Stack buffer overflow in SCTP error cause parsing in inet_drv allows remote VM crash CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-17230 In Erlang/OTP before 23.3.4.15, 24.x before 24.3.4.2, and 25.x before 25.0.2, there is a… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2016-08327 An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
See all 40 →

Sources