CVE-2026-56624
Improper certificate validation in Apache MINA SSHD (server-side). Apache MINA SSHD is a Java library for client-side and server-side SSH. Server-side OpenSSH user certificate validation during user authentication in an Apache MINA SSHD server did not check for the unsupported force-command or verify-required options that could be embedded in the certificate, nor did it validate these options. As a result it was possible that a user could authenticate with such a certificate that included a force-command option but still was able to execute other commands. What other command exactly would be available to the user depends on the implementation of the server. This issue is fixed in Apache MINA SSHD 2.19.0 and 3.0.0-M5. Applications are advised to upgrade to these versions. The fix rejects OpenSSH user certificates that include these options, since Apache MINA SSHD implements neither force-command nor sk-*[email protected] user certificates (which are the only ones for which verify-required would make sense).
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network and with an ordinary user account — but only if a user opens booby-trapped content.
- Impact
- An attacker can read sensitive data and modify or destroy data.
- Weakness
- The TLS certificate is not properly validated, making traffic interception possible.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.