CVE-2026-80230: OpenSSL pinning bypass

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-09-06 · updated 2026-09-15
Weakness: CWE-295

Description

When `CURLOPT_PINNEDPUBLICKEY` is configured alongside options that disable standard peer verification (`CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER = 0` and `CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST = 0`), libcurl fails to enforce public key pinning on connections established without a presented server certificate. Bypassing the pinning check under these disabled-verification conditions allows unauthenticated connections to succeed when they should be rejected.

Affected products

curl: from 7.45.0 before 8.22.0 — fixed in 8.22.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: curl 8.22.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2026-80230.html
https://curl.se/docs/CVE-2026-80230.json
https://hackerone.com/reports/3969300
https://hackerone.com/reports/3969300

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