CVE-2026-81020 PUBLISHED

wolfEngine reuses the AES-GCM nonce on every TLS 1.2 / DTLS 1.2 record

Assigner: wolfSSL
Reserved: 26.08.2026 Published: 28.08.2026 Updated: 28.08.2026

wolfEngine before 1.4.1 generates the 8-byte explicit AES-GCM nonce once when the TLS write key is set and never increments it per record. As a result every TLS 1.2 and DTLS 1.2 AES-GCM record within a connection is encrypted under an identical key and nonce pair. Reusing a GCM key and nonce discloses the keystream (the XOR of two ciphertexts equals the XOR of their plaintexts, so one known record recovers the others) and leaks the GHASH authentication key, enabling authentication tag forgery. AES-CCM, TLS 1.3, and non-TLS use of the cipher are not affected.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS Score: 7.4

Product Status

Vendor wolfSSL Inc.
Product wolfEngine
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 1.4.0 (incl.)

Solutions

Upgrade to wolfEngine 1.4.1, which increments the explicit nonce after each record. As an interim mitigation use AES-CCM or TLS 1.3 instead of TLS 1.2 / DTLS 1.2 AES-GCM.

Credits

  • wolfSSL security team finder

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-323 Reusing a Nonce, Key Pair in Encryption CWE