Step CA Has Authorization Bypass in ACME and SCEP Provisioners

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2025-44005: 9.09% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 95.31 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

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.

Published by the source

3 Dec 2025, 17:00 UTC

Last modified by the source

3 Dec 2025, 17:00 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:13 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-h8cp-697h-8c8p

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2025-44005

Advisory: Step CA Has Authorization Bypass in ACME and SCEP Provisioners
IDs: CVE-2025-44005, GHSA-h8cp-697h-8c8p
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2025-44005 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:13 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Critical (CVSS 10.0)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/smallstep/certificates 0.29.0. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/smallstep/certificates: affected <= 0.28.4; fixed in 0.29.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/smallstep/certificates: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/smallstep/certificates.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-h8cp-697h-8c8p (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-h8cp-697h-8c8p lists affected ranges: Go github.com/smallstep/certificates >=0 <=0.28.4)

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