CVE-2026-33248 PUBLISHED

NATS has mTLS verify_and_map authentication bypass via incorrect Subject DN matching

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 18.03.2026 Published: 25.03.2026 Updated: 25.03.2026

NATS-Server is a High-Performance server for NATS.io, a cloud and edge native messaging system. Prior to versions 2.11.15 and 2.12.6, when using mTLS for client identity, with verify_and_map to derive a NATS identity from the client certificate's Subject DN, certain patterns of RDN would not be correctly enforced, allowing for authentication bypass. This does require a valid certificate from a CA already trusted for client certificates, and DN naming patterns which the NATS maintainers consider highly unlikely. So this is an unlikely attack. Nonetheless, administrators who have been very sophisticated in their DN construction patterns might conceivably be impacted. Versions 2.11.15 and 2.12.6 contain a fix. As a workaround, developers should review their CA issuing practices.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVSS Score: 4.2

Product Status

Vendor nats-io
Product nats-server
Versions
  • Version < 2.11.15 is affected
  • Version >= 2.12.0-RC.1, < 2.12.6 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-287: Improper Authentication CWE
  • CWE-295: Improper Certificate Validation CWE