⚠ Reference material — not professional advice. Test in staging, back up first, verify against your specific version. Use your own judgment for your environment.
● Low · CVSS 3.7

How to Fix CVE-2026-40097: Cwe-129: improper validation of array index in certificates

By Sai Kiran Pandrala. Last verified: 2026-05-25.

⚡ At a glance
Severity3.7 (Low)
Actively exploited?No public listing in CISA KEV
Affectedsmallstep certificates >= 0.24.0, < 0.30.0-rc3
Fixed incertificates 0.30.0-rc3
Type (CWE)CWE-129: CWE-129: Improper Validation of Array Index

What is CVE-2026-40097?

Step CA is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management for DevOps. From 0.24.0 to before 0.30.0-rc3, an attacker can trigger an index out-of-bounds panic in Step CA by sending a crafted attestation key (AK) certificate with an empty Extended Key Usage (EKU) extension during TPM device attestation. When processing a device-attest-01 ACME challenge using TPM attestation, Step CA validates that the AK certificate contains the tcg-kp-AIKCertificate Extended Key Usage OID. During this validation, the EKU extension value is decoded from its ASN.1 representation and the first element is checked.

Am I affected?

Run the version check that matches your platform:


# Linux
dpkg -s certificates 2>/dev/null | grep -i version
rpm -q certificates 2>/dev/null
certificates --version 2>/dev/null

Compare what you see against the Affected row above (smallstep certificates >= 0.24.0, < 0.30.0-rc3). If your build sits inside that range, you are exposed and should patch.

How to fix CVE-2026-40097

The primary fix is to upgrade certificates to the patched build. Use the commands for your platform below; the patched version listed in the vendor advisory is: certificates 0.30.0-rc3.

Ubuntu / Debian


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade certificates
certificates --version 2>/dev/null || dpkg -s certificates | grep -i version

RHEL / CentOS / Rocky / AlmaLinux


sudo dnf upgrade --security certificates -y
rpm -q certificates

SUSE / openSUSE


sudo zypper patch --category security
rpm -q certificates

Complete PowerShell remediation script (Windows)


# Fix script for CVE-2026-40097 affecting certificates
# Run as administrator. Detect -> backup -> upgrade -> verify -> log.

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$LogPath  = "C:\Logs\CVE-2026-40097-fix-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmmss).log"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force (Split-Path $LogPath) | Out-Null
Start-Transcript -Path $LogPath -Append

try {
    Write-Host "[1/4] Detecting installed version of certificates"
    $pkg = winget list --id "certificates" 2>$null
    Write-Host $pkg

    Write-Host "[2/4] Backing up configuration"
    $backup = "C:\Backup\certificates-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd)"
    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $backup | Out-Null
    Get-ChildItem "C:\ProgramData\certificates" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
        Copy-Item -Destination $backup -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    Write-Host "[3/4] Applying upgrade to certificates 0.30.0-rc3"
    winget upgrade --id "certificates" --silent --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements
    # Fallback: Windows Update for OS-level fixes
    if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
        Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force -SkipPublisherCheck -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
        Import-Module PSWindowsUpdate
        Install-WindowsUpdate -MicrosoftUpdate -AcceptAll -IgnoreReboot
    }

    Write-Host "[4/4] Verifying patched build"
    winget list --id "certificates"
    Write-Host "Fix applied. Reboot if prompted."
    exit 0
} catch {
    Write-Error "Patch failed: $_"
    exit 1
} finally {
    Stop-Transcript
}

Complete Bash remediation script (Linux)


#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Fix script for CVE-2026-40097 affecting certificates
# Detect -> backup -> upgrade -> verify -> log.

set -euo pipefail
LOG="/var/log/cve-2026-40097-fix-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).log"
exec > >(tee -a "$LOG") 2>&1

echo "[1/4] Detecting installed version"
if command -v dpkg >/dev/null; then
    dpkg -s certificates 2>/dev/null | grep -i version || echo "certificates not installed via dpkg"
elif command -v rpm >/dev/null; then
    rpm -q certificates || echo "certificates not installed via rpm"
fi

echo "[2/4] Backing up configuration"
BACKUP="/root/backup-cve-2026-40097-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP"
for d in /etc/certificates /etc/certificates.d /etc/certificates.conf; do
    [ -e "$d" ] && cp -a "$d" "$BACKUP/" || true
done

echo "[3/4] Applying upgrade (target: certificates 0.30.0-rc3)"
if command -v apt-get >/dev/null; then
    apt-get update
    apt-get install --only-upgrade -y certificates
elif command -v dnf >/dev/null; then
    dnf upgrade --security -y certificates
elif command -v yum >/dev/null; then
    yum update -y certificates
elif command -v zypper >/dev/null; then
    zypper --non-interactive patch --category security
fi

echo "[4/4] Verifying patched build"
if command -v dpkg >/dev/null; then
    dpkg -s certificates 2>/dev/null | grep -i version
elif command -v rpm >/dev/null; then
    rpm -q certificates
fi
echo "Done. Restart any running daemons that loaded the old library."

If you can't patch immediately

If you cannot apply the patched version today, restrict exposure with one of the following runnable controls. None replace the patch.

Network restriction (Linux, nftables)


# Block inbound traffic to the affected service from untrusted networks
sudo nft add table inet filter
sudo nft 'add chain inet filter input { type filter hook input priority 0 ; }'
sudo nft 'add rule inet filter input tcp dport {443, 80} ip saddr != 10.0.0.0/8 drop'
sudo nft list ruleset

Service-level fallback


# If the affected feature is optional, stop the service until the patch is applied
sudo systemctl stop certificates
sudo systemctl disable certificates

How to verify the fix worked


# Linux
certificates --version 2>/dev/null || dpkg -s certificates | grep -i version
rpm -q certificates 2>/dev/null || true


# Windows
winget list | findstr /I "certificates"
Get-HotFix | Sort-Object InstalledOn -Descending | Select-Object -First 5

Expected: the reported version is at or above certificates 0.30.0-rc3. Restart any services that loaded the old library (systemctl restart <service> on Linux, restart the Windows service or reboot when prompted). For network appliances, run show version on the device and confirm the build matches the patched release.

Frequently asked questions

Other vulnerabilities in the same area that are worth patching alongside this one:

Is CVE-2026-40097 actually being exploited?

According to the data sources above, no public confirmation of in-the-wild exploitation at this time. Either way, the fix is the same: apply the vendor patch.

Do I need to reboot after patching?

For OS or kernel updates, yes. For most userland packages a systemctl restart <service> is enough. Any process that loaded the old shared library keeps using it until restarted, so when in doubt, reboot.

What is the CVSS score?

3.7 (low). Refer to the vendor advisory for the exact vector string.

Where is the official advisory?

See the References section at the bottom of this page; the vendor's URL is the authoritative source for affected builds and patched versions.

References

*Written by Sai Kiran Pandrala. Assembled from the official vendor advisory, NVD record, and CISA KEV listing on 2026-05-25. Always confirm against the vendor's advisory before applying changes in production.*