GHSA-5gfm-wpxj-wjgq CVE-2025-12816

node-forge has an Interpretation Conflict vulnerability via its ASN.1 Validator Desynchronization

High npm

Severity: 0.0 / 10; High · CVSS 4.0
Exploit chance (EPSS): 0.58%; Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 47.71% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited: No; Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness: CWE-436 Interpretation Conflict
Fix: 1.3.2; Upgrade node-forge to this version or later

Description

Summary

CVE-2025-12816 has been reserved by CERT/CC

Description An Interpretation Conflict (CWE-436) vulnerability in node-forge versions 1.3.1 and below enables remote, unauthenticated attackers to craft ASN.1 structures to desynchronize schema validations, yielding a semantic divergence that may bypass downstream cryptographic verifications and security decisions.

Details

A critical ASN.1 validation bypass vulnerability exists in the node-forge asn1.validate function within forge/lib/asn1.js. ASN.1 is a schema language that defines data structures, like the typed record schemas used in X.509, PKCS#7, PKCS#12, etc. DER (Distinguished Encoding Rules), a strict binary encoding of ASN.1, is what cryptographic code expects when verifying signatures, and the exact bytes and structure must match the schema used to compute and verify the signature. After deserializing DER, Forge uses static ASN.1 validation schemas to locate the signed data or public key, compute digests over the exact bytes required, and feed digest and signature fields into cryptographic primitives.

This vulnerability allows a specially crafted ASN.1 object to desynchronize the validator on optional boundaries, causing a malformed optional field to be semantically reinterpreted as the subsequent mandatory structure. This manifests as logic bypasses in cryptographic algorithms and protocols with optional security features (such as PKCS#12, where MACs are treated as absent) and semantic interpretation conflicts in strict protocols (such as X.509, where fields are read as the wrong type).

Impact

This flaw allows an attacker to desynchronize the validator, allowing critical components like digital signatures or integrity checks to be skipped or validated against attacker-controlled data.

This vulnerability impacts the ans1.validate function in node-forge before patched version 1.3.2. https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/blob/main/lib/asn1.js.

The following components in node-forge are impacted. lib/asn1.js lib/x509.js lib/pkcs12.js lib/pkcs7.js lib/rsa.js lib/pbe.js lib/ed25519.js

Any downstream application using these components is impacted.

These components may be leveraged by downstream applications in ways that enable full compromise of integrity, leading to potential availability and confidentiality compromises.

Affected versions

npm

Package	Vulnerable	Fixed in
node-forge	`< 1.3.2`	`1.3.2`

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

node-forge npm → `1.3.2`

npm

npm install node-forge@1.3.2

yarn

yarn add node-forge@1.3.2

pnpm

pnpm add node-forge@1.3.2

Severity breakdown

CVSS 4.0 0.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Attack requirements: None
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Confidentiality (vulnerable system): None
Integrity (vulnerable system): High
Availability (vulnerable system): None
Confidentiality (subsequent systems): None
Integrity (subsequent systems): None
Availability (subsequent systems): None

CVSS 3.1 8.6

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Weakness

CWE-436: Interpretation Conflict

Product A handles inputs or steps differently than Product B, which causes A to perform incorrect actions based on its perception of B's state.

References

Packages

github.com/digitalbazaar/forge

Timeline

Nov 25, 2025 Published
Oct 18, 2026 Last updated by the source
Oct 31, 2026 Latest EPSS score

Advisory	Severity	Why it's related
GHSA-4642-5mcj-2rqw Forge: ASN.1 OID first arc truncation in asn1.oidToDer	Low	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-6wvx-3r32-xmcg Forge: Prototype Pollution in forge.http cookie handling via a malicious Set-Cookie	Medium	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-525v-9gp9-w22h Forge: TLS client crash when the server sends no certificate	Medium	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-7wch-p9px-956x Forge: Regular expression denial of service in PEM decoding (pem.decode)	High	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-h6cr-wjv9-3cpp Forge: Denial of Service via infinite loop in BigInteger.modInverse() with negative input (incomplete fix of CVE-2026-33891)	Low	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-4487-j8r4-4g2f Forge: verifyCertificateChain() removes trusted CA certificates with the same subject from the CA store	Low	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-5cwg-6vw7-rj6p Forge: AES-GCM authentication bypass via unvalidated tagLength option	Medium	Also affects node-forge
GHSA-jc66-7q78-782g Forge: PKCS#12 MAC forgery and constant-key PBE via zero iteration count	High	Also affects node-forge

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