TLS server crash via unsupported certificate extension
Published Feb 7, 2020 · Updated Apr 30, 2025
TLS denial of service in Node.js 10, 12, and 13 allows remote attackers to crash servers via crafted client certificates. When peer-certificate details are read, X509ToObject passes an unsupported subjectAltName string type to X509V3_EXT_print and asserts when printing fails. Reachability requires a TLS endpoint that requests a client certificate and reads its peer details; the assertion aborts the entire Node.js process.
Summary
What happened
TLS denial of service in Node.js 10, 12, and 13 allows remote attackers to crash servers via crafted client certificates. When peer-certificate details are read, X509ToObject passes an unsupported subjectAltName string type to X509V3_EXT_print and asserts when printing fails. Reachability requires a TLS endpoint that requests a client certificate and reads its peer details; the assertion aborts the entire Node.js process.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2019-15604
- Published
- Feb 7, 2020
- Updated
- Apr 30, 2025
- Vendor
- Node.js
- Product
- Node.js
- Classifications
- CWE-295, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 7, 2020CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0 <10.19.0
- Affected versionversion=11.0 <11.*
- Affected versionversion=12.0 <12.15.0
- Affected versionversion=13.0 <13.8.0
- Affected versionversion=4.0 <4.*
- Affected versionversion=5.0 <5.*
- Affected versionversion=6.0 <6.*
- Affected versionversion=7.0 <7.*
- Affected versionversion=8.0 <8.*
- Affected versionversion=9.0 <9.*
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Upstream malformed-certificate regression testproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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