# CVE-2026-118778: Forge: TLS client crash when the server sends no certificate


- **Severity:** Medium 5.9 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 29 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 29 Oct 2026

## What is CVE-2026-118778?

CVE-2026-118778 is a medium-severity vulnerability in digitalbazaar forge, published on 29 Oct 2026. 

### Official description

Forge (also called node-forge) is a native implementation of Transport Layer Security in JavaScript. Prior to 1.4.1, the affected implementation used forge.tls.createConnection(), c.session.serverCertificate, RSA key exchange to process the relevant input or security decision. node-forge's TLS client checked the wrong property when deciding whether a server certificate was missing. A malicious TLS server or on-path peer could omit the Certificate message and reach code that dereferenced the absent certificate, causing an uncaught exception and terminating the connection or process. This issue is fixed in version 1.4.1.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-118778?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-118778?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-118778 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-118778 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-118778 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-118778 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-118778 is a medium-severity vulnerability in digitalbazaar forge, published on 29 Oct 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-118778 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: digitalbazaar forge. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-118778/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-118778/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-118778
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-118778
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-118778

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-118778/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.