- Severity: MEDIUM
- CVE: CVE-2026-118778
- Ecosystems: npm
- Packages: node-forge
### Summary
The forge TLS client’s check for a missing server certificate read the wrong property and never ran. A malicious TLS server, or an on-path attacker who removes the server’s Certificate message, can make `connection.process()` throw a `TypeError`, which crashes applications that use the forge TLS client. Fixed in node-forge 1.4.1.
### Details
After ServerHelloDone, `tls.handleServerHelloDone()` in `lib/tls.js` is meant to reject a server that sent no certificate with a fatal `insufficient_security` alert, after consulting the application’s `verify` callback. The check tested `c.serverCertificate`, which is never set (the certificate is stored as `c.session.serverCertificate`), so it never ran. The client state machine allows ServerHelloDone directly after ServerHello, so the handshake continued to `tls.createClientKeyExchange()`, which reads `c.session.serverCertificate.publicKey` and throws a `TypeError` on the null certificate. The exception propagates out of `connection.process()` without calling the `verify` or `error` callbacks.
There is no authentication bypass: without a server certificate the client cannot build its RSA key exchange, so the handshake cannot complete.
The fix reads `c.session.serverCertificate` and always fails the handshake in that case, still calling `verify` so the application can customize the alert. Failing even when `verify` returns `true` is needed because the key exchange requires the certificate.
#### Patches
Fixed in node-forge…
Source: GitHub Security Advisories · 2026-10-30