Answer in brief
CVE-2026-42789 records a Medium severity (CVSS 4.8) security vulnerability in CVE-2026-42789. The source record does not mark it as known exploited. No package mapping is present, so exposure must be confirmed against the affected product and deployment inventory.
Review the upstream advisory, identify the affected product in your inventory, and apply the vendor update when one is available.
Vulnerability describes the vulnerability class recorded for this advisory. The current record does not mark CVE-2026-42789 as known exploited; continue to monitor the source for status changes. This is a product-level record in the current feed, not a package-level dependency mapping.
Affected software not mapped. Review the upstream record for vendor-specific product and version guidance.
Answer in brief
CVE-2026-42789 records a Medium severity (CVSS 4.8) security vulnerability in CVE-2026-42789. The source record does not mark it as known exploited. No package mapping is present, so exposure must be confirmed against the affected product and deployment inventory.
Review the upstream advisory, identify the affected product in your inventory, and apply the vendor update when one is available.
Vulnerability describes the vulnerability class recorded for this advisory. The current record does not mark CVE-2026-42789 as known exploited; continue to monitor the source for status changes. This is a product-level record in the current feed, not a package-level dependency mapping.
Affected software not mapped. Review the upstream record for vendor-specific product and version guidance.
Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust vulnerability in Erlang OTP public_key (pubkey_cert module) allows a non-CA certificate to be accepted as an intermediate issuer, enabling certificate chain forgery. In lib/public_key/src/pubkey_cert.erl, pubkey_cert:validate_extensions/7 contains two flaws that together allow a certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension to be used as an intermediate issuer in a chain passed to public_key:pkix_path_validation/3: the cA:false clause recurses into the remaining extensions without rejecting the certificate when it is in issuer position, and the keyUsage check only fires when the extension is present, so a certificate lacking keyUsage entirely bypasses the keyCertSign enforcement. Any party holding an end-entity certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension, issued by any CA in the victim's trust store, can use that certificate's private key to sign forged leaf certificates for arbitrary identities. public_key:pkix_path_validation/3 accepts the resulting chain, and by extension every TLS or mTLS endpoint built on the OTP ssl application that relies on the default verifier is affected, including server identity verification on the client side and client certificate verification on mTLS servers. This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 26.2.5.21, 27.3.4.12, 28.5.0.1, and 29.0.1 corresponding to public_key from 0.22 before 1.15.1.7, 1.17.1.3, 1.20.3.1, and 1.21.1.
Reported by NVD (nvd).
CVE-2026-42789 records a Medium severity (CVSS 4.8) security vulnerability in CVE-2026-42789. The source record does not mark it as known exploited. No package mapping is present, so exposure must be confirmed against the affected product and deployment inventory.
The source record does not mark it as known exploited.
Confirm whether the product or interface named by this advisory exists in your inventory.
HOL Guard can help your team monitor supply-chain activity while the upstream record is clarified.
Explore HOL GuardImproper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust vulnerability in Erlang OTP public_key (pubkey_cert module) allows a non-CA certificate to be accepted as an intermediate issuer, enabling certificate chain forgery. In lib/public_key/src/pubkey_cert.erl, pubkey_cert:validate_extensions/7 contains two flaws that together allow a certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension to be used as an intermediate issuer in a chain passed to public_key:pkix_path_validation/3: the cA:false clause recurses into the remaining extensions without rejecting the certificate when it is in issuer position, and the keyUsage check only fires when the extension is present, so a certificate lacking keyUsage entirely bypasses the keyCertSign enforcement. Any party holding an end-entity certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension, issued by any CA in the victim's trust store, can use that certificate's private key to sign forged leaf certificates for arbitrary identities. public_key:pkix_path_validation/3 accepts the resulting chain, and by extension every TLS or mTLS endpoint built on the OTP ssl application that relies on the default verifier is affected, including server identity verification on the client side and client certificate verification on mTLS servers. This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 26.2.5.21, 27.3.4.12, 28.5.0.1, and 29.0.1 corresponding to public_key from 0.22 before 1.15.1.7, 1.17.1.3, 1.20.3.1, and 1.21.1.
Reported by NVD (nvd).
CVE-2026-42789 records a Medium severity (CVSS 4.8) security vulnerability in CVE-2026-42789. The source record does not mark it as known exploited. No package mapping is present, so exposure must be confirmed against the affected product and deployment inventory.
The source record does not mark it as known exploited.
Confirm whether the product or interface named by this advisory exists in your inventory.
HOL Guard can help your team monitor supply-chain activity while the upstream record is clarified.
Explore HOL Guard