Botan: directoryName nameConstraint bypass via multi-AVA RDN flattening in matches_dn

published 2026-11-06 2 d ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago also EUVD-2026-118515

cvss: 2.1; version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits: 0; none known

Botan is a C++ cryptography library. Prior to 3.13.0, Botan's X.509 Distinguished Name decoder flattens the Attribute-Value Assertions in each Relative Distinguished Name and loses multi-value RDN grouping before DN name-constraint enforcement. An attacker controlling a name-constrained intermediate CA can issue a certificate with a multi-value RDN whose first Common Name matches the permitted constraint and whose second Common Name is attacker-chosen, causing the constraint check to accept the flattened first value. If the certificate contains no subjectAlternativeName extension, the second Common Name can then be accepted as a hostname; Botan does not fall back to Common Name hostname matching when any subjectAlternativeName is present. The exposure is limited to deployments using DN name constraints, which are uncommon outside internal PKIs, and to certificates without a subjectAlternativeName. This issue is fixed in version 3.13.0.

Patch / fix

distros 1 links 2

botan3 Debian 14 3.13.0+dfsg-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-48057

github.com/randombit/botan@a22260c commit
github.com/randombit/botan#5618 pull request

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	4.0	2.1	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N
CNA	4.0	2.1	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/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

Affected products

randombit botan

Classification

Weakness

CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation
CWE-1023 Incomplete Comparison with Missing Factors

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-48057
NVD CVE-2026-48057

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary