GHSA-6hxq-p678-4hr2

    Dashboard / Vulnerabilities / GHSA-6hxq-p678-4hr2

    GHSA-6hxq-p678-4hr2

    Published: 4 Sept 2026Last Modified: 4 Sept 2026

    Summary: SimpleWebAuthn: Registration verification does not sufficiently ensure that attestation certificates chain to a trust anchor

    Details: ## Summary `validateCertificatePath()` does not verify that an attestation's certificate chain actually terminates at a configured trust anchor. When walking the chain it stops at the first self-signed certificate it finds (which could be user-supplied), and exits early. This happens before the configured Apple/Google/etc trust anchor (which is concatenated to the end of the chain) is reached. A user can therefore register a credential and have the server accept it as if it were backed by a genuine Apple / Android SafetyNet / Yubikey / etc. ## Details `packages/server/src/helpers/validateCertificatePath.ts`: The configured trust anchor is appended to the end of the untrusted chain (line **83**): ```ts const x5cWithTrustAnchor = x5cCertsParsed.concat([anchor]); ``` The walk then verifies each cert was signed by the next, but breaks on the first self-signed cert (lines **104–116**): ```ts if (issuer.subject === issuer.issuer) { // Root cert detected, make sure it signed itself const issuerSignedIssuer = await issuer.verify( { publicKey: issuer.publicKey, signatureOnly: true }, WebCrypto, ); if (!issuerSignedIssuer) { throw new InvalidSubjectAndIssuer(); } break; // <-- exits before the appended trust anchor is ever checked if user supplied self-signed cert comes first } ``` The success condition is therefore "the certs form an internally-consistent chain ending in some self-signed cert" Rather than "the chain terminates at one of the configured trust anchors." ## Exploit shape ``` attacker sends: x5c = [ forgedLeaf (signed by attacker root), attackerSelfSignedRoot ] library builds: [ forgedLeaf, attackerSelfSignedRoot, <configured Apple/Google/etc root> ] walk: forgedLeaf -> attackerSelfSignedRoot (verifies, attacker controls both) attackerSelfSignedRoot is self-signed -> break attackerSelfSignedRoot -> configured root (NEVER CHECKED) ``` `return true`. The configured anchor never gets checked. As far as observed, all attestation enforcement uses validateCertificatePath when using MDS etc.

    Affected packages

    Package

    Name: @simplewebauthn/server

    Purl: pkg:npm/%40simplewebauthn/server

    Affected ranges

    Type: SEMVER

    Events:

    Introduced- 0
    Fixed -13.3.2

    Affected versions

    Common Vulnerability Scoring System

    Attack Vector
    Network
    Adjacent
    Local
    Physical
    Privileges Required
    None
    Low
    High
    User Interaction
    None
    Required
    Scope
    Unchanged
    Changed
    Confidentiality
    None
    Low
    High
    Integrity
    None
    Low
    High
    Availability
    None
    Low
    High