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Medium · 5.9 CVE-2026-103503 EUVD-2026-97497

Hex trusts its bundled CA certificates when cacerts_path is set

Published Oct 12, 2026 · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Assigned by EEF

Description

Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability in hexpm hex allows an attacker who can intercept HTTPS connections, and holds a certificate for a Hex host issued by a CA in Hex's bundled CA store, to impersonate that host to users who set cacerts_path to a CA store that leaves that CA out.

cacerts_path (HEX_CACERTS_PATH) is documented as the path to the CA certificate store, used instead of the CA bundle that ships with Hex. Hex.HTTP.SSL.ssl_opts/1 passes the configured store as the cacerts option, but builds the partial_chain callback from the bundled store whether cacerts_path is set or not. Hex.HTTP.SSL.partial_chain/2 accepts a server chain when any certificate in it has the same public key as a bundled CA certificate, so a chain that leads to a bundled CA passes verification although the configured store doesn't contain that CA. Hostname verification still applies.

This issue affects hex: from 0.20.2 before 2.5.2.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
hexpm hex 0.20.2 – < 2.5.2 2.5.2

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 erlang-hex 2.5.3-2 —
Debian 13 erlang-hex No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 erlang-hex No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS erlang-hex No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS erlang-hex No fix yet —

References