WolfsslApplication

CVE-2026-2646

HIGH · 8.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-19
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.9.0 or later.
See remediation →
90/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A heap-buffer-overflow vulnerability exists in wolfSSL's wolfSSL_d2i_SSL_SESSION() function. When deserializing session data with SESSION_CERTS enabled, certificate and session id lengths are read from an untrusted input without bounds validation, allowing an attacker to overflow fixed-size buffers and corrupt heap memory. A maliciously crafted session would need to be loaded from an external source to trigger this vulnerability. Internal sessions were not vulnerable.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-122

Data overflows a buffer allocated on the heap, corrupting neighbouring heap structures and allocator metadata that a patient attacker can groom into control of execution. It is subtler than a stack overflow but just as dangerous. The fix is validating lengths before every write and using safe allocators and bounded operations.

General guidance for the heap-based buffer overflow class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
WolfsslApplication
Affected:< 5.9.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.9.0 or later
Fixed in 5.9.0
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

wolfSSL 5.9.0

  1. 1. Identify the current wolfSSL version in use by checking your project's dependency files or running `wolfssl version` if available
  2. 2. Upgrade wolfSSL to version 5.9.0 or later by updating the dependency in your package manager (e.g., `apt update && apt install libwolfssl` or `brew upgrade wolfssl`, or via your build system's dependency management)
  3. 3. Alternatively, download wolfSSL 5.9.0 or later from the official repository at https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl and rebuild from source
  4. 4. Rebuild and recompile all applications that link against the wolfSSL library
  5. 5. Test the upgrade by verifying the wolfSSL version and ensuring SSL/TLS functionality works correctly
  6. 6. Ensure that any externally sourced session data is validated before being passed to wolfSSL_d2i_SSL_SESSION() as a defense-in-depth measure
Caveat Check wolfSSL 5.9.0 release notes for any API or behavioral changes; no breaking changes mentioned in the vulnerability description

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-2646 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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