Reference page — cumulative record through Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.
CVE-2026-33896
digitalbazaar forge — Forge has a basicConstraints bypass in its certificate chain verification (RFC 5280 violation)
AV AC PR UI S C I A CVSS EPSS %ile KEV
N L N N U H H N 9.1 .0050 40.7 —
AFFECTED
Product Versions Fixed
forge < 1.4.0 – —
TIMELINE
Mar 24 Reserved by GitHub_M
Mar 27 Published (CNA: GitHub_M)
Aug 31 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-33896 (digitalbazaar forge). Public exploit reference added.
Aug 31 RESCORED — CVE-2026-33896 (digitalbazaar forge). CVSS 7.4 → 9.1 (NVD).
Sep 4 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-33896 (digitalbazaar forge). Public exploit reference added.
Description
Forge (also called `node-forge`) is a native implementation of Transport Layer Security in JavaScript. Prior to version 1.4.0, `pki.verifyCertificateChain()` does not enforce RFC 5280 basicConstraints requirements when an intermediate certificate lacks both the `basicConstraints` and `keyUsage` extensions. This allows any leaf certificate (without these extensions) to act as a CA and sign other certificates, which node-forge will accept as valid. Version 1.4.0 patches the issue.
Lifecycle
Complete event history — 5 events, chronological
| Date | Event | Detail |
|---|
| March 24, 2026 | Reserved | Reserved by GitHub_M |
| March 27, 2026 | Published | Published (CNA: GitHub_M) |
| August 31, 2026 | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-33896 (digitalbazaar forge). Public exploit reference added. |
| August 31, 2026 | RESCORED | RESCORED — CVE-2026-33896 (digitalbazaar forge). CVSS 7.4 → 9.1 (NVD). |
| September 4, 2026 | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-33896 (digitalbazaar forge). Public exploit reference added. |
Affected
Affected products and packages — 1 row
| Vendor | Product / Package | Ecosystem | Version introduced | Fixed |
|---|
| digitalbazaar | forge | — | < 1.4.0 | — |
About this page
This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2026-33896 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.
