CVE-2026-86219
An attacker who observes one successful `qop=auth` exchange can replay the captured response against a later session for the same service, host, realm and user, and authenticate as that user without knowing the password.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.49%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Authen::SASL::Perl::DIGEST_MD5 versions before 2.2100 for Perl accept replayed authentication responses via unverified nonce in server_step. server_start generates a fresh nonce and sends it in the challenge, and nothing later compares that value against the nonce the client returns. server_step derives the expected digest from the client's own parameters, so a response verifies whenever its digest matches the nonce it carries. The count table it also checks is keyed on the client-supplied nonce and starts empty in each new server object, so a captured first response, carrying `nc=00000001`, passes that too. RFC 2831 defines the nonce in the response as the value the server sent in the preceding challenge. An attacker who observes one successful `qop=auth` exchange can replay the captured response against a later session for the same service, host, realm and user, and authenticate as that user without knowing the password.
- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.49% probability · 40th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-294
- Source
- 9b29abf9-4ab0-4765-b253-1875cd9b441e
References
- https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2831#section-2.1.2
- https://github.com/perl-authen-sasl/perl-authen-sasl/commit/94337367030612842924f697cead29964a96448d.patch
- https://metacpan.org/release/EHUELS/Authen-SASL-2.2000/source/lib/Authen/SASL/Perl/DIGEST_MD5.pm#L203-222
- https://metacpan.org/release/EHUELS/Authen-SASL-2.2000/source/lib/Authen/SASL/Perl/DIGEST_MD5.pm#L410-414
- https://metacpan.org/release/EHUELS/Authen-SASL-2.2100/changes
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-40918
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.