CVE-2026-7009

A flaw was found in curl. When curl is configured to use the Certificate Status Request TLS (Transport Layer Security) extension, also known as OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol) stapling, it fails to properly detect issues with the OCSP response. This can lead curl to incorrectly validate a server certificate as legitimate, potentially allowing an attacker to bypass certificate validation and establish a connection to a malicious server.

This vulnerability affects curl and libcurl certificate validation functionality. Red Hat Product Security has assessed this issue as a Moderate severity vulnerability.

The flaw was introduced in curl 8.17.0 as part of functionality that added support for certificate validation using Apple SecTrust together with OpenSSL-based TLS backends.

The issue is particularly relevant for users who explicitly enable OCSP validation through --cert-status or CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYSTATUS, as these options are intended to ensure that certificate revocation status is verified before a connection is accepted.

Red Hat products are not affected by this vulnerability. The vulnerable functionality was introduced in curl 8.17.0, while Red Hat products currently ship curl versions older than 8.17.0 and therefore do not contain the affected code.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.