Bug 2536969 (CVE-2026-93578)

Summary: CVE-2026-93578 io.netty/netty-handler-ssl-ocsp: Netty: Missing Extended Key Usage (EKU) check in OCSP Client allows certificate revocation bypass
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: fmariani, gmalinko, janstey, jwon, mcarlett, pjindal, rstepani, tcunning, yfang
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in Netty's Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) Client. The client fails to verify the 'id-kp-OCSPSigning' Extended Key Usage (EKU) in OCSP responder certificates. A remote attacker, holding any valid certificate issued by the same Certificate Authority (CA), can exploit this by forging 'GOOD' OCSP responses for revoked certificates. This bypasses certificate revocation checks, allowing applications using Netty's OCSP Client to accept certificates that should have been revoked, leading to an authorization bypass.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-18 10:35:26 UTC
Missing Extended Key Usage (EKU) check in OCSP Client allows certificate revocation bypass

A public GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-jhjp-5q4f-8wr2) describes the following issue:

### Summary
Netty's OcspClient does not verify that an OCSP responder certificate contains the id-kp-OCSPSigning Extended Key Usage (EKU). A bad actor with any valid certificate issued by the same CA can forge "GOOD" OCSP responses for revoked certificates, bypassing revocation checks.

### Details
In `io.netty.handler.ssl.ocsp.OcspClient`, `validateSignature` uses `CertPathBuilder` to validate the responder's certificate chain to the trust anchor. However, it fails to verify if the responder is authorized to sign OCSP responses. Per RFC 6960, delegated OCSP responders must explicitly hold the id-kp-OCSPSigning EKU. Because OcspClient omits this check, any CA-issued certificate can successfully sign forged OCSP responses.

https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6960#section-4.2.2.2

```
Systems or applications that rely on OCSP responses MUST be capable
   of detecting and enforcing the use of the id-kp-OCSPSigning value as
   described above.
...
They MUST reject the
   response if the certificate required to validate the signature on the
   response does not meet at least one of the following criteria:

   1. Matches a local configuration of OCSP signing authority for the
      certificate in question, or

   2. Is the certificate of the CA that issued the certificate in
      question, or

   3. Includes a value of id-kp-OCSPSigning in an extended key usage
      extension and is issued by the CA that issued the certificate in
      question as stated above.
```

### PoC
The following test in `io.netty.handler.ssl.ocsp.OcspClientTest` demonstrates the vulnerability. A bad actor creates a forged OCSP response signed by a standard, non-OCSP-signing certificate. Netty validates the signature without throwing an exception.

```java
    @Test
    void validateSignatureWithoutEkuSucceedsBypass() throws Exception {
        X509Bundle caRoot = new CertificateBuilder()
                .algorithm(CertificateBuilder.Algorithm.rsa2048)
                .subject("CN=TrustedRootCA")
                .setIsCertificateAuthority(true)
                .buildSelfSigned();

        X509Bundle badActorCert = new CertificateBuilder()
                .algorithm(CertificateBuilder.Algorithm.rsa2048)
                .subject("CN=BadActorServer")
                .buildIssuedBy(caRoot);

        X509CertificateHolder badActorHolder = new JcaX509CertificateHolder(badActorCert.getCertificate());

        BasicOCSPResp forgedResponse = createBasicOcspResponse(
                badActorCert,
                new X509CertificateHolder[]{badActorHolder}
        );

        assertDoesNotThrow(() -> OcspClient.validateSignature(forgedResponse, caRoot.getCertificate()),
                "Validation should have thrown an exception due to missing EKU.");
    }
```

### Impact
Authorization Bypass. Applications using Netty's OcspClient will accept revoked certificates if a network-positioned bad actor possesses any other certificate from the same CA.

Affected:
- maven:io.netty:netty-handler-ssl-ocsp affected >=4.2.0.Final, <=4.2.17.Final; fixed unknown
- maven:io.netty:netty-handler-ssl-ocsp affected >= 4.1.0.Final, <=4.1.137.Final; fixed unknown

Fixed versions: see advisory

Advisory: https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-jhjp-5q4f-8wr2