CVE-2026-33753: rfc3161-client Has Improper Certificate Validation
An Authorization Bypass vulnerability in rfc3161-client’s signature verification allows any attacker to impersonate a trusted TimeStamping Authority (TSA). By exploiting a logic flaw in how the library extracts the leaf certificate from an unordered PKCS#7 bag of certificates, an attacker can append a spoofed certificate matching the target common_name and Extended Key Usage (EKU) requirements. This tricks the library into verifying these authorization rules against the forged certificate while validating the cryptographic signature against an actual trusted TSA (such as FreeTSA), thereby bypassing the intended TSA authorization pinning entirely.
References
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-3xxc-pwj6-jgrj
- github.com/trailofbits/rfc3161-client
- github.com/trailofbits/rfc3161-client/commit/4f7d372297b4fba7b0119e9f954e4495ec0592c0
- github.com/trailofbits/rfc3161-client/releases/tag/v1.0.6
- github.com/trailofbits/rfc3161-client/security/advisories/GHSA-3xxc-pwj6-jgrj
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33753
Code Behaviors & Features
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