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Tor EUVDEUVD-2026-63647

| CVE-2026-77638 CRITICAL
Race Condition (CWE-362)
2026-08-20 mitre GHSA-pq38-gw56-4w65
9.0
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Operate malicious Tor relay
  2. Delivery
    Get selected as client's rendezvous point
  3. Exploit
    Win rendezvous race condition
  4. Execution
    Impersonate/MITM onion service
  5. Impact
    Intercept and tamper with client traffic

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Concurrency control, locking
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires the attacker to be operating a Tor relay that gets selected as the rendezvous point for the specific client-to-onion-service connection being targeted, and then to win a narrow timing race during rendezvous negotiation ('just the right circumstances,' reflected in AC:H). No authentication or user interaction is needed (PR:N/UI:N), and it is exploitable over the network (AV:N), but the practical limiters are significant: the attacker cannot freely choose which client uses their relay as rendezvous point, the vulnerable code path is a race that does not reliably trigger, and only clients/services running Tor before 0.4.9.11 (from 0.3.5.3-alpha onward) are affected. This confines realistic exploitation to targeted deanonymization/impersonation against specific onion services rather than opportunistic mass attacks.

Impact

This carries a high CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.0 (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) driven by network reach, no authentication, a scope change, and full CIA impact - but the AC:H (high attack complexity) reflects the core limiter: the flaw is a race condition (CWE-362) that only triggers 'in just the right circumstances,' and the attacker must be operating the relay that the client selects as its rendezvous point. Real-world signals sharply temper the paper severity: EPSS is only 0.17% (7th percentile), there is no CISA KEV listing and no public exploit code identified, indicating no observed or imminent widespread exploitation. The result is a genuine cryptographic/anonymity-integrity flaw in a security-critical product that warrants prompt patching for Tor operators and onion-service hosts, but is not a mass-exploitation emergency - its exploitation is probabilistic, position-dependent (attacker must control/be-chosen-as the rendezvous point), and race-timing-sensitive, pointing to targeted deanonymization/impersonation rather than opportunistic attacks. Note a labeling tension: the vendor vector asserts A:H, yet an onion-service impersonation/MITM is fundamentally a confidentiality+integrity compromise (read and tamper with traffic) and the availability justification is weak - treat A:H as generous.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker runs a Tor relay and waits to be selected as the rendezvous point for a client attempting to reach a specific onion service; by winning a narrow timing race during rendezvous setup, the relay impersonates the onion service and interposes itself as a man-in-the-middle. The attacker can then present a fake service or read and tamper with the client's supposedly end-to-end-authenticated onion traffic. No public exploit code is known, and the high complexity plus required relay position make this a targeted rather than broad attack.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
Patch available 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv2 – Sep 16, 2026

Rendezvous-point impersonation in Tor before 0.4.9.11 lets a malicious relay that a client happens to select as its rendezvous point race the rendezvous negotiation and man-in-the-middle the onion service the client was actually trying to reach, defeating the client's assurance about which service it is talking to. All Tor releases from 0.3.5.3-alpha up to and including 0.4.9.10 are affected; exploitation requires the attacker to already operate the relay chosen as the rendezvous point and to win a narrow timing window (reflected in the high attack complexity of the 9.0 base score), and no authentication or user interaction is required. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis and EPSS is low (0.17%, 7th percentile), so this is best treated as a targeted deanonymization/impersonation risk rather than an opportunistic mass-exploitation issue; a vendor fix is available in Tor 0.4.9.11.

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Aug 20, 2026 - 21:33 CVSS 8.9

Man-in-the-middle impersonation of onion services in Tor before 0.4.9.11 exploits a race condition in rendezvous point circuit negotiation, allowing a malicious relay operator acting as the rendezvous point to substitute itself for the intended onion service before the legitimate service completes authentication. The flaw affects all Tor application versions prior to 0.4.9.11 across all platforms. No public exploit code or active exploitation has been identified at time of analysis, but successful exploitation yields total interception and modification of traffic the client believes is reaching a private onion service.

RemediationAI

Upgrade to Tor 0.4.9.11 or later - the vendor-released fix version documented in the upstream ChangeLog (https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/-/raw/tor-0.4.9.11/ChangeLog) - applying it to both client daemons and relays and restarting the tor process so the new binary is loaded; distribution packages, Tor Browser bundles, and operator builds should be refreshed from their respective channels once they carry the 0.4.9.11 ChangeLog. There is no client-side configuration that reliably closes the race, because the attacker's advantage comes from being randomly selected as the rendezvous point rather than from a setting the client controls; pinning rendezvous points (for example with RendezvousPoints, ExcludeNodes, or StrictNodes) does narrow the pool of relays that can be used, but it shrinks the anonymity set and can itself be deanonymizing, so it should only be considered as a temporary measure for a specific high-value onion service and reverted after patching. For services that can coordinate with their users, enabling v3 onion-service client authorization lets clients reject an imposter that lacks the authorized key, at the cost of requiring key distribution and breaking anonymous public access. Until all relevant daemons are patched, treat connections to sensitive onion services from vulnerable clients as untrustworthy, and monitor the upstream ChangeLog and the NVD/VulDB advisories (https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-77638, https://vuldb.com/vuln/393873) for any backports to older supported series; no public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis and EPSS is low, which makes a scheduled upgrade acceptable in most environments but not in ones that depend on onion-service identity for trust.

Affected VersionsENISA

Tor 0.3.5.3-alpha <0.4.9.11

Affected Packages

euvd tor fix: 0.4.9.11

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

Tor's onion-service connection setup has a client pick an introduction point, obtain the service's chosen rendezvous point, and then build a circuit to that rendezvous point where the two circuits are joined. CVE-2026-77638 is a race condition (CWE-362) in that rendezvous negotiation: when an attacker-controlled relay is selected as the rendezvous point, a precise timing window lets it interpose itself so that the client believes it reached the intended onion service while the attacker is actually impersonating it. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:torproject:tor:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* covers the Tor daemon itself, and the vendor ChangeLog for tor-0.4.9.11 documents the fix in the 0.4.9 maintenance line per the EUVD-derived range 0.3.5.3-alpha to <0.4.9.11. The published CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and our independent assessment (AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N) agree on network reach, high attack complexity, no privileges or user interaction, and a scope change from the relay into the client's connection, but they diverge on availability: the vendor-scored A:H is not supported by the assessed behavior, which is an impersonation/information-integrity issue rather than a denial-of-service. The core limiter in both readings is AC:H: the race 'in just the right circumstances' does not reliably trigger, and the attacker cannot choose which clients use their relay as rendezvous point.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (mitre) PRIMARY HIGH
NVD 9.0 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 8.7 HIGH

Race condition winnable only from a chosen rendezvous relay justifies AC:H and PR:N; MITM/impersonation crosses trust boundary (S:C) with full read/tamper (C:H/I:H) but no clear availability loss (A:N).

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE HIGH

Primary rating from Vendor (mitre).

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

4
Severity Changed
Sep 16, 2026 - 14:22 NVD
HIGH CRITICAL
CVSS changed
Sep 16, 2026 - 14:22 NVD
8.9 (HIGH) 9.0 (CRITICAL)
Patch available
Aug 20, 2026 - 22:04 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 20, 2026 - 20:52 cve.org
HIGH 8.9

DescriptionNVD

Tor before 0.4.9.11 is prone to a race condition where in just the right circumstances a rendezvous point could man-in-the-middle (impersonate) the onion service that the client was trying to reach.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Organizations and personnel that rely on Tor for anonymous or censorship-resistant communications face a targeted impersonation and deanonymization risk from a critical flaw in Tor before 0.4.9.11. A successful attack could undermine trust in the identity of the onion service being reached and expose sensitive user relationships or activities, though it requires an adversary to control the selected rendezvous relay and win a narrow timing window. Leadership should prioritize patching any Tor-dependent systems and at-risk user endpoints because the flaw affects confidentiality assurances central to Tor's business use cases; no public exploit identified at time of analysis.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 93% exploitable
Prevalence
High
Tor is a very widely deployed global anonymity network and relay ecosystem
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
CRITICAL severity
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact
High

Priority Score

45
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +45
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

Race conditions occur when multiple concurrent requests exploit the brief time gap between checking a condition and acting upon it (TOCTOU - Time of Check, Time of Use).

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important

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