CVE-2026-50721 (GCVE-0-2026-50721)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-07-02 21:44 – Updated: 2026-07-02 21:44
VLAI
Title
IKEv1 Denial of Service via RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5 Encrypted) authentication payload
Summary
Libreswan, via the function RSA_authenticate_hash_signature_raw_rsa(), did not correctly verify the length of the authentication hash when the SIG payload of an IKEv1 packet was encoded using PKCS #1 RSA Encryption as per RFC 2313. A remote attacker can use a variation on the Bleichenbacher attack to forge the SIG payload when small public exponents are being used (e.g., e=3), which could lead to impersonation. Additionally, a remote attacker, by encoding a shorter than expected hash in the SIG payload, could trigger an assertion leading to denial-of-service. The daemon aborts and restarts; continued exploitation causes sustained denial of service. Remote code execution is not possible. X.509 certificate verifications of remote IKE peers are not affected.
Severity
7.5 (High)
8.1 (High)
Assigner
References
4 references
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/CVE… | vendor-advisory |
| https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/ | patch |
| https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50722/CVE… | related |
| https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2313 | technical-description |
Impacted products
1 product
| Vendor | Product | Version | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Libreswan Project | libreswan |
Affected:
0 , ≤ 5.3
(semver)
Unaffected: 5.3.1 (semver) |
Credits
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"collectionURL": "https://github.com/libreswan/libreswan",
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"packageName": "libreswan",
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"value": "Any server or client that accepts RSA-based IKEv1 connections via the default authby=rsasig option is vulnerable to denial of service. Authentication bypass additionally requires the use of RSA keys with weak exponents (e=3). IKEv1 only supports RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5) for public key authentication, so the vulnerable code path cannot be disabled without migrating to IKEv2 or switching to PSK."
}
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"credits": [
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"lang": "en",
"type": "finder",
"value": "Yeonghyeon Choi"
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{
"lang": "en",
"type": "finder",
"value": "Duyeong Kim"
},
{
"lang": "en",
"type": "analyst",
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}
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"value": "\u003cp\u003eLibreswan, via the function RSA_authenticate_hash_signature_raw_rsa(), did not correctly verify the length of the authentication hash when the SIG payload of an IKEv1 packet was encoded using PKCS #1 RSA Encryption as per RFC 2313. A remote attacker can use a variation on the Bleichenbacher attack to forge the SIG payload when small public exponents are being used (e.g., e=3), which could lead to impersonation. Additionally, a remote attacker, by encoding a shorter than expected hash in the SIG payload, could trigger an assertion leading to denial-of-service. The daemon aborts and restarts; continued exploitation causes sustained denial of service. Remote code execution is not possible. X.509 certificate verifications of remote IKE peers are not affected.\u003c/p\u003e"
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"value": "Libreswan, via the function RSA_authenticate_hash_signature_raw_rsa(), did not correctly verify the length of the authentication hash when the SIG payload of an IKEv1 packet was encoded using PKCS #1 RSA Encryption as per RFC 2313. A remote attacker can use a variation on the Bleichenbacher attack to forge the SIG payload when small public exponents are being used (e.g., e=3), which could lead to impersonation. Additionally, a remote attacker, by encoding a shorter than expected hash in the SIG payload, could trigger an assertion leading to denial-of-service. The daemon aborts and restarts; continued exploitation causes sustained denial of service. Remote code execution is not possible. X.509 certificate verifications of remote IKE peers are not affected."
}
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"value": "No known exploitation in the wild. The authentication bypass requires the target to use RSA keys with weak exponents (e=3), which have been disallowed by most cryptographic libraries for at least a decade. The denial-of-service attack is exploitable against any IKEv1 configuration using the default authby=rsasig option."
}
],
"impacts": [
{
"capecId": "CAPEC-463",
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "Denial of Service via assertion failure in pluto daemon when processing malformed RSA PKCS#1 v1.5 SIG payloads in IKEv1"
}
]
},
{
"capecId": "CAPEC-473",
"descriptions": [
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"lang": "en",
"value": "Authentication bypass via Bleichenbacher-style signature forgery when weak RSA exponents (e.g., e=3) are in use"
}
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}
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"scope": "UNCHANGED",
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"value": "Weak RSA exponent (e=3) in use, enabling Bleichenbacher signature forgery"
}
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"description": "Vendor-assessed severity: Medium. Authentication bypass requires weak RSA exponents (e=3) which have been disallowed by most cryptographic libraries for over a decade. DoS is mitigated by automatic daemon restart.",
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"description": "CWE-617: Reachable Assertion",
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"providerMetadata": {
"dateUpdated": "2026-07-02T21:44:09.423Z",
"orgId": "d42dc95b-23f1-4e06-9076-20753a0fb0df",
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"url": "https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/CVE-2026-50721.txt"
},
{
"name": "Libreswan CVE-2026-50721 Patches",
"tags": [
"patch"
],
"url": "https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/"
},
{
"name": "Related: CVE-2026-50722 (IKEv2 variant)",
"tags": [
"related"
],
"url": "https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50722/CVE-2026-50722.txt"
},
{
"name": "RFC 2313 - PKCS #1: RSA Encryption Version 1.5",
"tags": [
"technical-description"
],
"url": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2313"
}
],
"solutions": [
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"lang": "en",
"supportingMedia": [
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"value": "\u003cp\u003eUpgrade to libreswan 5.3.1 or later. Patches for libreswan 4.15 and 5.3 are available at \u003ca href=\"https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/\"\u003ehttps://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"
}
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"value": "Upgrade to libreswan 5.3.1 or later. Patches for libreswan 4.15 and 5.3 are available at https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-50721/"
}
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"source": {
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"taxonomyRelations": [
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"relationshipName": "maps to",
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"timeline": [
{
"lang": "en",
"time": "2026-03-24T00:00:00.000Z",
"value": "Libreswan notified of the issue via security@libreswan.org"
},
{
"lang": "en",
"time": "2026-06-16T00:00:00.000Z",
"value": "Advanced notice given to supported customers and distributions"
},
{
"lang": "en",
"time": "2026-06-24T00:00:00.000Z",
"value": "Public announcement and release of libreswan 5.3.1"
}
],
"title": "IKEv1 Denial of Service via RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5 Encrypted) authentication payload",
"workarounds": [
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"value": "\u003cp\u003eIKEv1 only supports RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5) with public key authentication, so there is no way to disable the vulnerable code path within IKEv1. Migrate IKEv1 connections to IKEv2 where \u003ccode\u003eauthby=ecdsa\u003c/code\u003e or \u003ccode\u003eauthby=rsa-sha2\u003c/code\u003e can be configured. For static tunnel configurations (not Remote Access VPN Client groups), authentication can be changed to use PSK via \u003ccode\u003eauthby=secret\u003c/code\u003e after coordination with the remote peer.\u003c/p\u003e"
}
],
"value": "IKEv1 only supports RSA-SHA1 (PKCS#1 Version 1.5) with public key authentication, so there is no way to disable the vulnerable code path within IKEv1. Migrate IKEv1 connections to IKEv2 where authby=ecdsa or authby=rsa-sha2 can be configured. For static tunnel configurations (not Remote Access VPN Client groups), authentication can be changed to use PSK via authby=secret after coordination with the remote peer."
}
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"assignerShortName": "libreswan",
"cveId": "CVE-2026-50721",
"datePublished": "2026-07-02T21:44:09.423Z",
"dateReserved": "2026-06-05T16:10:05.751Z",
"dateUpdated": "2026-07-02T21:44:09.423Z",
"state": "PUBLISHED"
},
"dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
"dataVersion": "5.2",
"vulnerability-lookup:meta": {
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}
}
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Experimental. This forecast is provided for visualization only and may change without notice. Do not use it for operational decisions.
Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
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