CVE-2026-73253Mongoose: TLS Hostname Verification Bypass via Overly Permissive Wildcard Matching
- 9.1CriticalCVSS base score
- 0.34%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 72% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
Mongoose is an embedded web server and network library. Prior to version 7.22, an on-path network attacker with a wildcard certificate for a parent domain can impersonate deeper subdomains to a client using the built-in TLS stack. The mg_tls_verify_cert_san() and mg_tls_verify_cert_cn() functions in src/tls_builtin.c call mg_match(), whose wildcard can cross DNS label boundaries, so a pattern such as *.example.com can match foo.bar.example.com. The resulting hostname verification bypass permits interception and modification of TLS traffic. This issue is fixed in version 7.22.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
- https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/security/advisories/GHSA-jp6g-796f-39vp (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 9 days later
· 9 days later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | Critical9.1 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 4.0 | Critical9.1 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.34% · top 72% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.1.
Affected products
References
References4
- https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/security/advisories/GHSA-jp6g-796f-39vp (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMexploit
- https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/pull/3611 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/commit/a9df523f76f43a38bd53b4232b9cfd4c16869e71 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/releases/tag/7.22 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-63500 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-73253)Record last updated .