CVE-2022-25640
Published: 24 February 2022
Summary
CVE-2022-25640 is a high-severity Improper Certificate Validation (CWE-295) vulnerability in Wolfssl Wolfssl. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 10.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
The vulnerability CVE-2022-25640 is present in wolfSSL versions before 5.2.0. It stems from incomplete enforcement of mutual authentication during TLS 1.3 handshakes, allowing a client to skip the certificate_verify message and omit any certificate entirely.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the flaw simply by initiating a TLS 1.3 connection to a server that requires client certificates. Successful exploitation permits the attacker to complete the handshake and establish a session without presenting valid credentials, resulting in a high-integrity impact where authentication controls are bypassed.
The referenced GitHub pull requests contain the corrective changes merged into wolfSSL, so mitigation requires upgrading to version 5.2.0 or applying an equivalent patch that restores proper certificate verification behavior on the server side.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-30300
Vulnerability details
In wolfSSL before 5.2.0, a TLS 1.3 server cannot properly enforce a requirement for mutual authentication. A client can simply omit the certificate_verify message from the handshake, and never present a certificate.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
When certificates are used to establish component provenance, the control requires correct certificate validation procedures.
Mandates approved trust anchors and issuance policies, directly preventing acceptance of unvalidated or untrusted certificates.
Correct system time is required for proper enforcement of certificate notBefore/notAfter dates and time-based revocation checks.