Server impersonation via conditional public-key pin check
Published Jan 8, 2026 · Updated Jan 8, 2026
Certificate validation bypass in curl 8.8.0 through 8.17.0 allows man-in-the-middle attackers to impersonate HTTP/3 servers. In lib/vquic/vquic-tls.c, the GnuTLS branch calls Curl_gtls_verifyserver only when verifyhost is enabled, so disabling hostname checks also suppresses the configured public-key pin check. The bypass requires QUIC through ngtcp2 built with GnuTLS, an explicit pinned public key, and disabled standard certificate verification; HTTP/1, HTTP/2, and other QUIC or TLS backends remain unaffected.
Summary
What happened
Certificate validation bypass in curl 8.8.0 through 8.17.0 allows man-in-the-middle attackers to impersonate HTTP/3 servers. In lib/vquic/vquic-tls.c, the GnuTLS branch calls Curl_gtls_verifyserver only when verifyhost is enabled, so disabling hostname checks also suppresses the configured public-key pin check. The bypass requires QUIC through ngtcp2 built with GnuTLS, an explicit pinned public key, and disabled standard certificate verification; HTTP/1, HTTP/2, and other QUIC or TLS backends remain unaffected.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-13034
- Published
- Jan 8, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 8, 2026
- Vendor
- curl
- Product
- curl
- Classifications
- CWE-295, T1557
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 8, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 8, 2026Record 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=8.10.0 <=8.10.0
- Affected versionversion=8.10.1 <=8.10.1
- Affected versionversion=8.11.0 <=8.11.0
- Affected versionversion=8.11.1 <=8.11.1
- Affected versionversion=8.12.0 <=8.12.0
- Affected versionversion=8.12.1 <=8.12.1
- Affected versionversion=8.13.0 <=8.13.0
- Affected versionversion=8.14.0 <=8.14.0
- Affected versionversion=8.14.1 <=8.14.1
- Affected versionversion=8.15.0 <=8.15.0
- Affected versionversion=8.16.0 <=8.16.0
- Affected versionversion=8.17.0 <=8.17.0
- Affected versionversion=8.8.0 <=8.8.0
- Affected versionversion=8.9.0 <=8.9.0
- Affected versionversion=8.9.1 <=8.9.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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