CVE-2026-14957
FIPS mode assertion failure via malicious CERT payload
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- libreswan
Description
In FIPS mode, Libreswan's add_decoded_cert() function calls CERT_ExtractPublicKey() and asserts that the result is not NULL. However, CERT_ExtractPublicKey() returns NULL when public key extraction fails, for example if the RSA exponent is set to 0. A remote attacker can send a malformed X.509 certificate in a CERT payload to trigger the assertion, causing the pluto daemon to abort and restart. Continued exploitation causes a denial of service. No remote code execution is possible. Both IKEv1 and IKEv2 are affected. The vulnerability is only exploitable when both the OS and libreswan are running in FIPS mode and at least one CA certificate is loaded. The CERT payload is processed before peer authentication, so no credentials are needed to exploit this. Configurations using only PreSharedKey (PSK) authentication with no CA certificates loaded in the NSS database are not vulnerable.
Timeline
ID reserved
By libreswan
- 57 days later
· 57 days later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| libreswanCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.47% · top 59% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Weakness
Affected products
The Libreswan Project · libreswan
- affected 3.0 – ≤ 5.3.1
- unaffected 5.3.2
What to do
Solution: Upgrade to libreswan 5.3.2 or later. Patches for libreswan 4.15 and 5.3 are available at https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-14957/
Workaround: No workaround is available unless one is willing to disable FIPS mode. If libreswan is only using PreSharedKey (PSK) authentication and the NSS database contains no CA certificates, CERT payloads are ignored and libreswan is not vulnerable.
Exploitation: No known exploitation in the wild. Exploitation requires the target to be running in FIPS mode with at least one CA certificate loaded. The CERT payload can be sent before peer authentication, so no credentials are needed.
References (2)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2026-14957)Record last updated .