Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-48618

Nodejs Node.Js 22.22.3 … 26.3.0

Published
26 June 2026
Modified
10 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.032 87th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-48618 is a medium-severity Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding (CWE-176) vulnerability in Nodejs Node.Js. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Invisible Unicode (T1027.018); ranked in the top 13% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to IA-2 (Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users)) and IA-4 (Identifier Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A flaw in Node.js TLS hostname handling can cause Node.js unicode dot separator handling can lead to tls wildcard-depth authentication bypass due to resolver and verifier hostname normalization mismat. This can lead to confidentiality impact or bypass of the intended…

more

security boundary under affected configurations. This vulnerability affects all supported release lines: **Node.js 22**, **Node.js 24**, and **Node.js 26**.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1027.018 Invisible Unicode Stealth
Adversaries may abuse invisible or non-printing Unicode characters to conceal malicious content within files, scripts, or text.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information Stealth
Adversaries may attempt to make an executable or file difficult to discover or analyze by encrypting, encoding, or otherwise obfuscating its contents on the system or in transit.
T1132 Data Encoding Command And Control
Adversaries may encode data to make the content of command and control traffic more difficult to detect.
T1132.002 Non-Standard Encoding Command And Control
Adversaries may encode data with a non-standard data encoding system to make the content of command and control traffic more difficult to detect.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-55130Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2024-21891Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-32558Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-39331Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2024-21896Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-32002Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-30586Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-30581Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2023-23918Same product: Nodejs Node.Js
CVE-2026-48933Same product: Nodejs Node.Js

Affected Assets

nodejs
node.js
22.22.3, 24.16.0, 26.3.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 8 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V8.3.3
  • V10.3.2
  • V6.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Requiring unique identification and authentication of users forces the system to resolve all name variants to a single identity before access is granted.

Identifier management directly requires authorization and uniqueness checks that eliminate alternate-name aliases for the same actor or resource.

Input validation directly requires checking and normalizing encodings so that Unicode is handled consistently before further processing.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-03 mostly match
prevents

Strong authentication mechanisms directly prevent name-based bypass when they enforce canonical name checks.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require proper Unicode/input validation to prevent this weakness.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

Proper identity management reduces alternate-name collisions but does not guarantee canonicalization inside the auth decision.

PR.AA-05 partial match
prevents

Authorization policy enforcement assumes correct identity; the weakness occurs before policy is applied.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect Unicode-handling flaws before deployment.

prevents

Access-control policy can mandate canonical-name checks but does not prescribe the technical implementation.

prevents

Identity-management processes can require unique, canonical identifiers, reducing alternate-name bypass risk.

degrades

Proper management of authentication credentials can include rules against duplicate or alias identities.

prevents

Access-rights provisioning can enforce canonical-name validation when granting rights.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates input validation and encoding handling that can prevent Unicode mishandling.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248538 OL 8 operating systems booted with United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must have a unique name for the grub superusers account when booting into single-user mode and maintenance. prevents CWE-289
RHEL 7 (1 rule)
  • V-244558 Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer booted with United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must have a unique name for the grub superusers account when booting into single-user mode and maintenance. prevents CWE-289

References