CVE-2026-427898.0HighCWE-296

CVE-2026-42789: Non-CA certificate accepted as intermediate issuer in public_key path validation

Erlang · OTP

Vendor fix available · Affected: Erlang OTP · Exploitation: unlikely (under 1%)

Not in CyberSIXT coverage yet: no article names this CVE. This page shows the public record.

0.4%probability of exploitation in the next 30 days

32nd percentile

050100

Higher than 32% of scored CVEs

8.0HighCVSS 3.1

LowMediumHighCrit.

DescriptionCVE.org

Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust vulnerability in Erlang OTP public_key (pubkey_cert module) allows a non-CA certificate to be accepted as an intermediate issuer, enabling certificate chain forgery. In lib/public_key/src/pubkey_cert.erl, pubkey_cert:validate_extensions/7 contains two flaws that together allow a certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension to be used as an intermediate issuer in a chain passed to public_key:pkix_path_validation/3: the cA:false clause recurses into the remaining extensions without rejecting the certificate when it is in issuer position, and the keyUsage check only fires when the extension is present, so a certificate lacking keyUsage entirely bypasses the keyCertSign enforcement. Any party holding an end-entity certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension, issued by any CA in the victim's trust store, can use that certificate's private key to sign forged leaf certificates for arbitrary identities. public_key:pkix_path_validation/3 accepts the resulting chain, and by extension every TLS or mTLS endpoint built on the OTP ssl application that relies on the default verifier is affected, including server identity verification on the client side and client certificate verification on mTLS servers. This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 27.3.4.19, OTP 28.5.0.8, and OTP 29.1.2, corresponding to public_key from 0.22 before 1.17.1.7, 1.20.3.6, and 1.21.8. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to public_key before 0.22, is affected is unknown.

Affected products3

From the CVE record. A product or version that is not listed is unknown, not unaffected.

Erlang · OTP17.0
Erlang · OTP0.22
Erlang · OTPVersions not stated

On the Atlas

Every published CVE is on the CyberSIXT Atlas, grouped by weakness, vendor and month.

Open the Atlas

Exploitation: Unlikely (under 1%). EPSS under 1%, or no score yet.
CISA KEV: Not listed
Public check: No public nuclei template
Weakness: Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust · Cryptography
Vendor: Erlang
Published: May 2026
Band: Unlikely (under 1%), May 2026

CoverageNo articles yet

No CyberSIXT article names CVE-2026-42789 yet, so there is no coverage timeline, action brief or change log for it. Everything on this page comes from the public CVE record, CISA KEV, EPSS and the nuclei template index. Search the archive or see the CVEs in the news.