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Forge: Ed25519 signature verification accepts small-order public keys

3.7LowCNA
Exploited
No known exploitation
Fix
Fixed in 1.4.3
Who is exposed
Not reported

Do first: Upgrade to a fixed version: 1.4.3.

Published
Last modified
Reference
Last checked
41/100 · provisional
93% of node-forge downloads last week were affected versions (59.6M).npm, 63.7M downloads in the last 7 days, read Nov 10, 2026
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

Forge (node-forge), a JavaScript implementation of Transport Layer Security, has a flaw in its Ed25519 signature verification that accepts small-order public keys. A remote attacker who can choose the public key without logging in could forge signatures that verify for many messages, which could undermine proof-of-possession, attribution, or non-repudiation checks, but only applications that verify attacker-supplied keys are affected.

Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.

Read the original description

Forge (also called node-forge) is a native implementation of Transport Layer Security in JavaScript. Prior to 1.4.3, ed25519.verify() decodes a public key in crypto_sign_open() without rejecting small-order points or their non-canonical encodings. With S = 0 and a small-order R value, an attacker who can choose the public key can produce signatures that verify for many messages, or all messages with the identity key, without a private key. This can defeat proof-of-possession, attribution, non-repudiation, or deduplication checks that rely on a signature being bound to the message. Keys produced by normal Ed25519 key generation are not small-order, so applications that verify only trusted or internally generated public keys are not affected. This issue is fixed in version 1.4.3.

cve.now Index

41Pcve.now Index 41 of 100 · methodology v3 · provisional
  • Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
  • Exposure17/25No login or user action needed per the CVSS vector, reachable over the network without a login · Unknown: No advisory context yet
  • Reach20/20node-forge: 55.6M downloads a week
  • Severity3.7/10CVSS 3.7
  • No patch0/5No signal

What would change the score

  • Would score about 86 if added to CISA KEV
  • Would score about 81 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
  • Would score about 46 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed

Impact

  • Widely used

    node-forge has 55.6m weekly downloads.Source: npmjs.com

    64.9k packages depend on node-forge.Source: deps.dev

What to do

  • Upgrade to a fixed version: 1.4.3.

Check your systems with an agent

Paste this into a coding or ops agent. It checks your systems read-only and reports a table per asset.

Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-125335 (Forge: Ed25519 signature verification accepts small-order public keys), using the cve.now data below.

Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.

What cve.now has for CVE-2026-125335 (entry last updated 2026-11-10):
Affected:
- digitalbazaar forge: fixed in 1.4.3
- npm package node-forge: fixed in 1.4.3
Fixed versions: 1.4.3.
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-125335 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-125335 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.

How to check:
- Packages (npm): find every lockfile in each project and run check_stack from the cve.now MCP server on each one. Compare the resolved versions, not the ranges a manifest declares, with the affected versions above. Include transitive dependencies.

Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/security/advisories/GHSA-6889-vf6x-f3g5
- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/pull/1169
- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/commit/1b77e6f20082d7484479303d0252d5f427651295
- https://github.com/digitalbazaar/forge/releases/tag/v1.4.3
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.

Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.

Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-125335
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example get_vulnerability with id CVE-2026-125335.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. First seen by cve.now

Affected versions

  • digitalbazaar forge

    fixed in 1.4.3

  • fixed in 1.4.3

    Fixed in 1.4.3 (released Nov 4, 2026, 6 days before disclosure).

    The latest release, 1.4.3, is not affected.

Evidence 6

Vendor advisory · 1

Establishes: Affected and fixed versions.

  1. Advisory

CVE record · 2

Establishes: The identifier and description.

  1. Record
  2. Record

Other links · 3

  1. Repository
  2. Repository
  3. Repository

Corrections

None so far.

Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.

Questions about CVE-2026-125335

Is CVE-2026-125335 being exploited?

It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-125335?

forge: before 1.4.3. node-forge (npm): before 1.4.3.Source: cve.now feed data

How do I fix CVE-2026-125335?

Upgrade to a fixed version: 1.4.3.Source: cve.now feed data