CVE-2026-55964
Chain intermediate CA:TRUE without keyCertSign accepted as a signing CA. Intermediate CA certificates are required to have the keyCertSign key usage when a Key Usage extension is present, but chain-supplied temporary CAs (WOLFSSL_TEMP_CA) added while building a certificate path were previously exempted from this check, so an intermediate asserting CA:TRUE but lacking keyCertSign was accepted as a signing CA. The check now applies to chain-supplied temporary CAs as well; only operator-loaded root certificates (WOLFSSL_USER_CA) and self-signed roots remain exempt. Per RFC 5280 an absent Key Usage extension implies all usages, so the requirement is enforced only when the extension is actually present (extKeyUsageSet). Affects the OpenSSL-compatibility certificate-path-building path (X509_verify_cert / X509_STORE, OPENSSL_EXTRA/OPENSSL_ALL), where untrusted chain intermediates are added as temporary CAs; native (non-OpenSSL-compat) certificate verification does not create temporary CAs and is unaffected. Within those builds, the check applies unless ALLOW_INVALID_CERTSIGN is defined.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- A temporary CA exemption allows a signing CA without keyCertSign.
- Who is affected
- Users of chain intermediate CA are affected.
- Urgency
- Remediation is medium urgency due to a CVSS score of 5.3.
- Action
- Review and update CA configurations to ensure compliance.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Low exploitation risk0.12% 30-day exploitation probability — currently an unlikely target, but scores change as exploit code circulates. Riskier than 2% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Advisory coverage (2)
External references
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