CVE-2026-55962

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.

CVSS v3 6.5 MEDIUM

6.5^/10

CVSS v3 : MEDIUM

Vector :

Exploitability : 2.8 / Impact : 3.6

Attack Vector NETWORK

Attack Complexity LOW

Privileges Required LOW

User Interaction NONE

Confidentiality Impact NONE

Integrity Impact HIGH

Availability Impact NONE

Scope UNCHANGED

References

Link	Resource
https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl/pull/10702	Issue Tracking Patch
https://www.wolfssl.com/docs/security-vulnerabilities/	Vendor Advisory

Configurations

Configuration 1 (hide)

cpe:2.3:a:wolfssl:wolfssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

History

No history.

Information

Published : 2026-06-25 22:17

Updated : 2026-06-27 19:57

NVD link : CVE-2026-55962

Mitre link : CVE-2026-55962

CVE.ORG link : CVE-2026-55962

JSON object : View

Products Affected

wolfssl

wolfssl

CWE

CWE-287

Improper Authentication

NVD-CWE-noinfo

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