Ghidra before 12.1 contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in PKIAuthenticationModule.authenticate() that allows any user with a valid CA-signed certificate to impersonate other users by presenting their public certificate with a null signature. Attackers can escalate privileges, modify repository access controls, exfiltrate shared reverse engineering databases, and permanently compromise server integrity.
Fix
Patch, vendor advisory and mitigation references on NVD 3
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/commit/78729379e471bbb3d969409be6a8c3d24af84220 Patch
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/commit/79d8f164f8bb8b15cfb60c5d4faeb8e1c25d15ca Patch
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/security/advisories/GHSA-5wxq-7qpv-65p2 Vendor Advisory
Every line above is quoted from NVD, CISA, Microsoft, the vendor's own advisory or DISA; nothing is generated.
Change history 1
- First seenCVSS 8.7 · nsaNVD modified 2026-10-26 11:10
Affected (CPE criteria) 1
cpe:2.3:a:nsa:ghidra:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
References 4
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/commit/78729379e471bbb3d969409be6a8c3d24af84220 Patch
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/commit/79d8f164f8bb8b15cfb60c5d4faeb8e1c25d15ca Patch
- https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/security/advisories/GHSA-5wxq-7qpv-65p2 Vendor Advisory
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/ghidra-authentication-bypass-via-null-signature-in-pkiauthenticationmodule Third Party Advisory