OP-TEE's subkey rollback protection can be bypassed with older subkey versions
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · High · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-285.
Summary
OP-TEE is a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) designed as companion to a non-secure Linux kernel running on Arm; Cortex-A cores using the TrustZone technology. Starting in version 3.20.0 and prior to version 4.11.0, a vulnerability in OP-TEE’s subkey rollback protection allows the use of revoked or older subkey versions because the system fails to propagate versioning data during the Trusted Application (TA) loading process. In `core/crypto/signed_hdr.c`, the function `shdr_load_pub_key()` parses subkey headers but does not assign the `subkey_version` to the runtime `shdr_pub_key` structure. As a result, the `key->version` field remains at zero regardless of the version specified in the header. When `ree_fs_ta_open()` in `core/kernel/ree_fs_ta.c` calls `check_update_version()`, it passes this zeroed version to the rollback database. Because the database never receives a non-zero version to record, it never advances, effectively bypassing the rollback check and allowing TAs signed with downgraded subkey chains to load successfully. This impacts OP-TEE mainline configurations that utilize subkey-based signing chains for Trusted Application (TA) authentication. Version 4.11.0 contains a patch. No known workarounds are available.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA optee_os (OP-TEE) Fixed in 4.11.0
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-44362
References
More Op-tee vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-22796 OP-TEE Trusted OS vulnerable to Improper Validation of Array Index in the cleanup_shm_refs function CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-29072 OP-TEE has a Use-After-Free race in FF-A shared-memory teardown CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2023-21925 OP-TEE double free in shdr_verify_signature CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.4
- TI-2026-33359 OP-TEE vulnerable to ECDH private key recovery CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.7
- TI-2019-16063 Integer overflow in OP-TEE CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2019-16062 Integer overflow in OP-TEE CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-44362 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-44362 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- CVE-2026-44362 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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