CVE-2021-44533
MediumCVSS 5.3Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Very high risk95th percentile - higher than 95% of all known CVEs
Summary
Node.js < 12.22.9, < 14.18.3, < 16.13.2, and < 17.3.1 did not handle multi-value Relative Distinguished Names correctly. Attackers could craft certificate subjects containing a single-value Relative Distinguished Name that would be interpreted as a multi-value Relative Distinguished Name, for example, in order to inject a Common Name that would allow bypassing the certificate subject verification. Affected versions of Node.js that do not accept multi-value Relative Distinguished Names and are thus not vulnerable to such attacks themselves. However, third-party code that uses node's ambiguous presentation of certificate subjects may be vulnerable.
Risk Assessment
Bypassing certificate subject verification could allow an attacker to impersonate trusted entities, potentially leading to man-in-the-middle attacks and communication integrity compromise.
Recommendation
It is recommended to upgrade Node.js to a patched version and review third-party code for secure handling of certificate subjects.
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Original NVD description (English source)
Node.js < 12.22.9, < 14.18.3, < 16.13.2, and < 17.3.1 did not handle multi-value Relative Distinguished Names correctly. Attackers could craft certificate subjects containing a single-value Relative Distinguished Name that would be interpreted as a multi-value Relative Distinguished Name, for example, in order to inject a Common Name that would allow bypassing the certificate subject verification.Affected versions of Node.js that do not accept multi-value Relative Distinguished Names and are thus not vulnerable to such attacks themselves. However, third-party code that uses node's ambiguous presentation of certificate subjects may be vulnerable.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS