FreeBSD VuXML: Documenting security issues in FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Ports Collection

Erlang/OTP -- public_key accepts non-CA certificate as intermediate issuer

Affected packages
17.0,3 <= erlang < 26.2.5.21,4
erlang-runtime27 < 27.3.4.12
erlang-runtime28 < 28.5.0.1
erlang-runtime29 < 29.0.1

Details

VuXML ID 9357a450-5a54-11f1-b886-4c526214c986
Discovery 2026-05-27
Entry 2026-05-28

https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-c99q-jmpx-v8qq reports:

Erlang/OTP's public_key application contains a path-validation flaw where non-CA certificates lacking keyUsage extensions can be accepted as intermediate issuers. An attacker with an end-entity certificate issued by a trusted CA can exploit this to forge arbitrary leaf certificates, allowing public_key:pkix_path_validation/3 to validate fraudulent certificate chains and potentially compromise systems relying on SSL/TLS validation.

References

CVE Name CVE-2026-42789
URL https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-c99q-jmpx-v8qq