CVE-2026-22696
Published: 26 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-22696 is a critical-severity Improper Certificate Validation (CWE-295) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 9.3 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Code Signing (T1553.002); ranked at the 10.8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-4661
Vulnerability details
dcap-qvl implements the quote verification logic for DCAP (Data Center Attestation Primitives). A vulnerability present in versions prior to 0.3.9 involves a critical gap in the cryptographic verification process within the dcap-qvl. The library fetches QE Identity collateral (including qe_identity,…
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qe_identity_signature, and qe_identity_issuer_chain) from the PCCS. However, it skips to verify the QE Identity signature against its certificate chain and does not enforce policy constraints on the QE Report. An attacker can forge the QE Identity data to whitelist a malicious or non-Intel Quoting Enclave. This allows the attacker to forge the QE and sign untrusted quotes that the verifier will accept as valid. Effectively, this bypasses the entire remote attestation security model, as the verifier can no longer trust the entity responsible for signing the quotes. All deployments utilizing the dcap-qvl library for SGX or TDX quote verification are affected. The vulnerability has been patched in dcap-qvl version 0.3.9. The fix implements the missing cryptographic verification for the QE Identity signature and enforces the required checks for MRSIGNER, ISVPRODID, and ISVSVN against the QE Report. Users of the `@phala/dcap-qvl-node` and `@phala/dcap-qvl-web` packages should switch to the pure JavaScript implementation, `@phala/dcap-qvl`. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability. Users must upgrade to the patched version to ensure that QE Identity collateral is properly verified.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Missing signature verification on fetched QE collateral directly enables forged signed data acceptance (T1553.002) and facilitates AiTM tampering on PCCS fetches (T1557).
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.
Component authenticity commonly depends on cryptographic signatures; the control enforces proper verification of those signatures.
Mandates approved trust anchors and issuance policies, directly preventing acceptance of unvalidated or untrusted certificates.
Requires verification of digital signatures using organization-approved certificates before installation, directly preventing improper verification of cryptographic signatures.
Requires cryptographic signatures on authoritative data and support for verifying the chain of trust.
Mandates verification of cryptographic signatures (e.g., DNSSEC RRSIG) on resolution responses, addressing missing or bypassed signature checks.
Correct system time is required for proper enforcement of certificate notBefore/notAfter dates and time-based revocation checks.
Integrity tools commonly rely on cryptographic signatures whose improper validation this weakness covers.
Authenticity validation commonly relies on cryptographic signature or certificate checks that this control enforces.