CVE-2026-55962
Severity CVSS v4.0:
MEDIUM
Type:
CWE-287
Authentication Issues
Publication date:
25/06/2026
Last modified:
27/06/2026
Description
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.
Impact
Base Score 4.0
6.00
Severity 4.0
MEDIUM
Base Score 3.x
6.50
Severity 3.x
MEDIUM
Vulnerable products and versions
| CPE | From | Up to |
|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:wolfssl:wolfssl:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.5.4 (including) | 5.9.2 (excluding) |
To consult the complete list of CPE names with products and versions, see this page