CVE-2026-105031
Description
A flaw was found in qpid-proton. When configuring custom trusted certificates with the OpenSSL Transport Layer Security (TLS) implementation, the library appends the certificates to default system trust anchors instead of replacing them. This improper certificate validation can allow a remote attacker presenting a certificate issued by any standard system Certificate Authority (CA) to be trusted by the application, potentially permitting unauthorized connections or interception of communications.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as Important severity because applications configured to restrict TLS trust to specific custom certificate authorities inadvertently retain the operating system's default root certificates. This behavior allows attackers capable of intercepting network traffic to authenticate using certificates signed by any trusted public authority. Red Hat environments utilizing AMQ, OpenStack, or Service Interconnect where isolated trust domains are expected are potentially susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks. Although exploiting this flaw requires an adversary to occupy a privileged network position, successful exploitation compromises the confidentiality and integrity of message exchange.
Mitigation
Configure the environment of affected processes to override the default OpenSSL certificate store path to `/dev/null`. This ensures that only explicitly configured CA certificates are trusted.
For standalone or shell-executed processes:
export SSL_CERT_FILE=/dev/null
For systemd-managed services, create or edit a drop-in override (e.g., using `systemctl edit <service_name>`):
[Service]
Environment="SSL_CERT_FILE=/dev/null"
Apply the changes by reloading systemd and restarting the service:
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl restart <service_name>
Caveats:
Setting `SSL_CERT_FILE=/dev/null` disables loading of standard operating system CA certificates. Any connection depending on system-wide root CAs will fail certificate verification unless explicitly added to the application's trust store.
Warning: Restarting services will terminate active network connections and interrupt in-flight message delivery.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.4 | N/A | 9.1 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Authentication
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
When a certificate is invalid or malicious, it might allow an attacker to spoof a trusted entity by interfering in the communication path between the host and client. The product might connect to a malicious host while believing it is a trusted host, or the product might be deceived into accepting spoofed data that appears to originate from a trusted host.
Frequently Asked Questions
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