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Medium · 6.8 CVE-2026-115683 EUVD-2026-113941GHSA-rgq4-6fxx-v9rg

epiphany: TLS certificate warning bypass via race in tlsErrorPage message handler

Published Oct 30, 2026 · Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Assigned by fedora

Description

A race condition in Epiphany allows a malicious website to bypass the TLS/SSL certificate warning page.

Epiphany registers the main-world script message handler "tlsErrorPage" so its internal TLS error page can implement "Accept Risk and Proceed". The handler was registered immediately before loading the error page, leaving a brief window where the previously loaded untrusted origin could still call window.webkit.messageHandlers.tlsErrorPage.postMessage(...). The only authorization check compares a numeric WebKit page id that increments predictably; an attacker can burst-guess ids and approve a certificate exception with no user click.

If a victim visits malicious site A that redirects to site B with an invalid certificate, site A can, for a few milliseconds, disable TLS certificate error warnings for host B until Epiphany is restarted, enabling man-in-the-middle or site spoofing for that host.

Upstream report: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/work_items/2978
Proof of concept: https://beford.net/poc/ssl_poc.html
Fix: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/merge_requests/2245 (register handlers on LOAD_COMMITTED). No fixed release tagged yet; reporter and maintainer describe all current versions as affected. Maintainer notes the risky registration timing dates to commit 1da1caed (Epiphany 45.x era); before that the handlers were always registered and similarly reachable from web content.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
GNOME Epiphany < 51.1 51.1

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 epiphany-browser 51.2-1 —
Debian 13 epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Debian 12 epiphany-browser No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS epiphany-browser No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS epiphany-browser No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed epiphany 51.2-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12379-1

Advisories 1

References