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CVE-2025-44005 — Step CA Has Authorization Bypass in...

CRITICAL

Step CA Has Authorization Bypass in ACME and SCEP Provisioners

Published December 3, 2025Updated September 10, 2026Source: osv

Summary

## Summary A security fix is now available for Step CA that resolves a vulnerability affecting deployments configured with ACME and/or SCEP provisioners. All operators running these provisioners should upgrade to the latest release (`v0.29.0`) immediately. The issue was discovered and disclosed by a research team during a security review. There is no evidence of active exploitation. To limit exploitation risk during a coordinated disclosure window, we are withholding detailed technical information for now. A full write-up will be published in several weeks. --- ## Embargo List If your organization runs Step CA in production and would like advance, embargoed notification of future security updates, visit https://u.step.sm/disclosure to request inclusion on our embargo list. --- ## Acknowledgements This issue was identified and reported by Stephen Kubik of the Cisco Advanced Security Initiatives Group (ASIG) --- Stay safe, and thank you for helping us keep the ecosystem secure.

Advisory Timeline

  • First published December 3, 2025 (313 days ago).
  • Last revised September 10, 2026 — 280 days after initial publication.

Remediation

Upgrade to the fixed version using your package manager.

Go
Update github.com/smallstep/certificates to 0.29.0 or later
go get github.com/smallstep/certificates@v0.29.0

After upgrading, run your dependency scanner again to confirm the vulnerability is resolved.

Affected Packages (1)

Affects 1 ecosystem: go (1).

PackageEcosystemAffectedFixed In
github.com/smallstep/certificates
go
All versions0.29.0

Vulnerability Classification

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) identifiers for this vulnerability type.

CVSS Score Breakdown

What the CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) 10.0 score means for each attack dimension.

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-44005?
Step CA Has Authorization Bypass in ACME and SCEP Provisioners This vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of CRITICAL (CVSS score: 10.0/10).
How do I check if my project is affected by CVE-2025-44005?
CVE-2025-44005 affects github.com/smallstep/certificates. Use GeekWala's free vulnerability scanner to check your dependencies against CVE-2025-44005 and 200,000+ other known vulnerabilities.

Severity & Exploitability

CVSS Score
10.0

Exploitation is straightforward and causes maximum impact. Patch immediately.

Also Known As

GHSA-h8cp-697h-8c8p
GO-2025-4180

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