TLS 1.3 post-handshake authentication: server accepts Finished without client Certificate/CertificateVerify (wolfSSL wolfSSL)
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.24 % · percentile 14 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- wolfSSL
- NVD status
- Analyzed
Description
TLS 1.3 post-handshake authentication (PHA) issue where a server could accept a client's Finished message without the client having sent a Certificate and CertificateVerify. The post-handshake-auth exemption that allows an empty/absent peer certificate was only intended for the initial handshake, but it was also being applied while a post-handshake CertificateRequest was still outstanding. The check is now scoped to the initial handshake only: on the server, once a post-handshake CertificateRequest has been sent (certReqCtx is set), a peer certificate and a valid CertificateVerify are required again before the Finished is accepted, with empty-certificate handling following the configured verify mode (FAIL_IF_NO_PEER_CERT) just as during first-handshake client authentication. Only affects TLS 1.3 servers built with post-handshake authentication support (WOLFSSL_POST_HANDSHAKE_AUTH / --enable-postauth, included in --enable-all) that enable WOLFSSL_VERIFY_POST_HANDSHAKE and request a client certificate after the handshake via wolfSSL_request_certificate(). Clients, and servers that do not use post-handshake authentication, are unaffected.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-287 — Improper Authentication
References
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 4.0 | MEDIUM 6.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N | wolfSSL |
| CVSS 4.0 | MEDIUM 6.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X | NVD · facts@wolfssl.com (Secondary) |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N | NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary) |
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-39575
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2026-55962
Affected configurations (NVD CPE)
cpe:2.3:a:wolfssl:wolfssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*≥ 5.5.4 < 5.9.2
Affected products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
| wolfSSL · wolfSSL | affected 5.5.4 ≤ 5.9.1 |
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |