Forge: verifyCertificateChain() removes trusted CA certificates with the same subject from the CA store

[ Why it matters ]Priority signals

• Public proof-of-concept exploit exists (CISA SSVC)

[ Description ]Official description

Forge (also called node-forge) is a native implementation of Transport Layer Security in JavaScript. Prior to 1.4.1, the affected implementation used pki.verifyCertificateChain(), pki.createCaStore(), duplicate subject names to process the relevant input or security decision. node-forge modified the CA store while trying certificates that shared a subject name during pki.verifyCertificateChain(). A failed chain verification could permanently remove trusted CA certificates from the store, causing later valid chains to fail and creating a persistent availability impact for applications that reused the store. This issue is fixed in version 1.4.1.

[ Fixes ]Fixes and patches

• node-forge 1.4.1Fixed version · GitHub Advisories · npm package node-forge: upgrade to 1.4.1 or later (affected <= 1.4.0)

[ Packages ]Affected open-source packages

• node-forge npmAffected <= 1.4.0 · fixed in 1.4.1 · GHSA-4487-j8r4-4g2f

[ References ]References

• github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/commit/f6555609bd30f442fbfacd543155928ceccf98d0
• github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/releases/tag/v1.4.1
• github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/security/advisories/GHSA-4487-j8r4-4g2f