Race in Epiphany lets websites bypass TLS certificate warnings
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
GNOME Epiphany before 51.1 has a race condition (CWE-367) in its TLS error page message handler. A malicious site visited by a user can use a brief timing window during a redirect to disable certificate warnings for another host until Epiphany restarts. This enables man-in-the-middle attacks or spoofing of that host. A public proof of concept exists.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02
Description from the CNA
A race condition in Epiphany allows a malicious website to bypass the TLS/SSL certificate warning page. Epiphany registers the main-world script message handler "tlsErrorPage" so its internal TLS error page can implement "Accept Risk and Proceed". The handler was registered immediately before loading the error page, leaving a brief window where the previously loaded untrusted origin could still call window.webkit.messageHandlers.tlsErrorPage.postMessage(...). The only authorization check compares a numeric WebKit page id that increments predictably; an attacker can burst-guess ids and approve a certificate exception with no user click. If a victim visits malicious site A that redirects to site B with an invalid certificate, site A can, for a few milliseconds, disable TLS certificate error warnings for host B until Epiphany is restarted, enabling man-in-the-middle or site spoofing for that host. Upstream report: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/work_items/2978 Proof of concept: https://beford.net/poc/ssl_poc.html Fix: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/merge_requests/2245 (register handlers on LOAD_COMMITTED). No fixed release tagged yet; reporter and maintainer describe all current versions as affected. Maintainer notes the risky registration timing dates to commit 1da1caed (Epiphany 45.x era); before that the handlers were always registered and similarly reachable from web content.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- 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
Remediation
Upgrade GNOME Epiphany to version 51.1 or later, which is the fixed version.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02
- Fix · CNA Epiphany (GNOME) Fixed in 51.1
Vendor assessments
Timeline
- 2026-10-30 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-115683
- 2026-10-30 CISA SSVC decision points changed
- 2026-10-30 Priority changed: MEDIUM → HIGH
- 2026-10-30 Alias added: GHSA-rgq4-6fxx-v9rg
- 2026-11-02 Fix available: [email protected] · CNA
References
More GNOME vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-23091 Gnome-maps: gnome maps is vulnerable to a code injection attack (similar to xss) via its service.json CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-41775 Glib: off-by-one error in glib/gkeyfile.c via "g_key_file_get_locale_string_list" CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6
- TI-2026-41772 Glib: out-of-bounds read in glib/gdatetime.c:g_date_time_get_ymd via invalid gdatetime CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-03716 Libsoup: libsoup: denial of service via use-after-free in http/2 server CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2024-28393 Integer overflow in GNOME G Structured File Library CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2024-24253 Integer overflow in GNOME G Structured File Library CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
Sources
- CVE-2026-115683 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-115683 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-rgq4-6fxx-v9rg · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-115683 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences