● Medium · CVSS 6

How to Fix CVE-2026-5446: wolfSSL ARIA-GCM TLS 1.2/DTLS 1.2 GCM nonce reuse in wolfSSL

Q: Is CVE-2026-5446 being actively exploited?

Not at the time of writing. It is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. That status can change, so monitor the vendor advisory and the KEV catalog if the system is exposed.

Q: How severe is CVE-2026-5446?

CVSS rates it 6 (Medium). Use that score to set your patch priority alongside the other items in your queue.

Q: Do I have to take wolfSSL offline to apply the patch?

It depends on the deployment. High-availability or clustered installs can usually patch one node at a time with no full outage. Standalone installs typically need a short restart. Always follow the vendor's documented upgrade steps.

Q: What if my vulnerability scanner still flags CVE-2026-5446 after I patch?

Re-run the scan after a service restart, then confirm the scanner's plugin set is up to date. Some scanners detect by banner version only and lag the official fix metadata by a release.

*By Sai Kiran Pandrala*

Last verified: 2026-05-25

⚡ At a glance


Severity	CVSS 6, Medium
Actively exploited?	No
Affected	wolfSSL (5.2.1 < 5.9.1)
Fixed in	5.9.1
Type (CWE)	CWE-323: Reusing a Nonce, Key Pair in Encryption

CVE-2026-5446 is a wolfssl aria-gcm tls 1.2/dtls 1.2 gcm nonce reuse in wolfSSL. The fix is to upgrade to 5.9.1 and apply the runnable commands below.

What is CVE-2026-5446?

In wolfSSL, ARIA-GCM cipher suites used in TLS 1.2 and DTLS 1.2 reuse an identical 12-byte GCM nonce for every application-data record. Because wc_AriaEncrypt is stateless and passes the caller-supplied IV verbatim to the MagicCrypto SDK with no internal counter, and because the explicit IV is zero-initialized at session setup and never incremented in non-FIPS builds. This vulnerability affects wolfSSL builds configured with --enable-aria and the proprietary MagicCrypto SDK (a non-default, opt-in configuration required for Korean regulatory deployments).

In practical terms, a successful attacker gets recovery of plaintext from intercepted TLS traffic when the same GCM nonce is reused under one key. There is no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation listed in CISA's KEV catalog at the time of writing, but the CVSS rating still warrants prompt patching.

Am I affected?

You are affected if you run wolfSSL at a version listed in the Affected row above. Probe your installed build with the commands below.


grep LIBWOLFSSL_VERSION_STRING /usr/local/include/wolfssl/version.h

How to fix CVE-2026-5446

The primary fix is to upgrade to the patched build listed in the Fixed in row above (5.9.1). Pick the platform that matches your install and run the commands below.

Build from source (Linux/macOS)


git clone https://github.com/wolfSSL/wolfssl.git
cd wolfssl
git checkout v5.9.1-stable
./autogen.sh && ./configure --enable-aria && make
sudo make install && sudo ldconfig
./wolfssl/wolfcrypt/version  # confirm patched build

PowerShell script (Windows): detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


# Run as Administrator
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$log = "$env:ProgramData\wolfSSL-Patch-CVE-2026-5446.log"
function Write-Log($msg) { "$(Get-Date -Format s)  $msg" | Tee-Object -FilePath $log -Append }

Write-Log "Starting CVE-2026-5446 remediation for Wolfssl wolfSSL"

# 1. Detect: replace the path/version probe with one valid for your install
$installed = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*wolfSSL*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
Write-Log "Detected version: $installed"

if (-not $installed) {
    Write-Log "Product not installed on this host; nothing to do."
    return
}
if ([version]$installed -ge [version]'5.9.1') {
    Write-Log "Already at fixed version $installed; no action needed."
    return
}

# 2. Backup configuration to a timestamped folder
$backup = "$env:ProgramData\wolfSSL-Backup-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmm)"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backup -Force | Out-Null
$src = "$env:ProgramFiles\Wolfssl\wolfSSL"
if (Test-Path $src) { Copy-Item -Path $src -Destination $backup -Recurse -Force }
Write-Log "Backed up config to $backup"

# 3. Apply the patched installer
$installer = "$env:TEMP\wolfSSL-5.9.1.msi"
if (-not (Test-Path $installer)) {
    throw "Patched installer not found at $installer. Stage it from your software repo first."
}
Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$installer`" /qn /norestart" -Wait
Write-Log "Installer finished"

# 4. Verify
$verify = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*wolfSSL*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
if ([version]$verify -ge [version]'5.9.1') {
    Write-Log "SUCCESS: now at $verify (>= 5.9.1)"
} else {
    Write-Log "FAILURE: still at $verify after install"
    exit 1
}

Bash script (Linux): detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
LOG=/var/log/wolfssl-patch-cve-2026-5446.log
log()  { echo "$(date -Iseconds)  $*" | tee -a "$LOG"; }

log "Starting CVE-2026-5446 remediation for Wolfssl wolfSSL"

# 1. Detect installed version (works for deb and rpm packages)
if command -v dpkg >/dev/null && dpkg -s wolfssl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' wolfssl)
    PKG_MGR=apt
elif command -v rpm >/dev/null && rpm -q wolfssl >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' wolfssl)
    PKG_MGR=dnf
else
    log "wolfssl not installed via apt or rpm; check your package manager or vendor instructions."
    exit 0
fi
log "Detected: wolfssl=$CURRENT (manager=$PKG_MGR)"

# 2. Backup config
BACKUP=/var/backups/wolfssl-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
mkdir -p "$BACKUP"
for d in /etc/wolfssl /etc/${pkg%%-*} ; do
    [ -d "$d" ] && cp -a "$d" "$BACKUP/" && log "Backed up $d to $BACKUP"
done

# 3. Upgrade
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    sudo apt-get update -y
    sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade -y wolfssl
else
    sudo dnf upgrade --security -y wolfssl
fi

# 4. Verify
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    NEW=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' wolfssl)
else
    NEW=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' wolfssl)
fi
log "After upgrade: $NEW"
log "Done. Compare $NEW against 5.9.1 and restart the affected service if needed."

If you cannot patch immediately

These are runnable hardening commands. They reduce blast radius but they are not a replacement for the vendor patch.

Disable the affected cipher suites until patched

Restrict TLS configuration to AES-GCM (which is not affected) and drop ARIA-GCM ciphers from the offer list:


# Example wolfSSL build flag
./configure --disable-aria
# Or at runtime, pin the cipher list:
# CIPHER_LIST="ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384"

How to verify the fix worked

Run the version probe again and confirm the running build matches the Fixed in row above.


# Confirm the built library version
./configure --version 2>/dev/null || grep LIBWOLFSSL_VERSION_STRING /usr/local/include/wolfssl/version.h

Expected output: a version string at or above 5.9.1.

Re-run any vulnerability scanner you used previously and confirm the finding for CVE-2026-5446 has cleared. Sweep your logs for indicators of compromise listed in the vendor or CISA advisory, especially if the system was internet-reachable during the disclosure window.

This advisory covers multiple CVE IDs. The same patched build closes every entry below:

Frequently asked questions

Is CVE-2026-5446 being actively exploited?