How severe is CVE-2026-9697?

CVE-2026-9697 has a CVSS score of 7.4/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2026-9697?

CVE-2026-9697 affects the following packages: undici (npm), undici (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix CVE-2026-9697?

Update undici to 7.28.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-9697 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2026-9697 in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for undici, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2026-9697 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Is CVE-2026-9697 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2026-9697 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2026-9697?

CVE-2026-9697 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 45th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-9697?

CVE-2026-9697 is classified as CWE-295 (CWE-295). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2026-9697 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2026-9697 was published on June 17, 2026 and was last updated on September 12, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦

📦 npm

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2026-9697 — undici

HIGH

CVE-2026-9697 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.4) CWE-295 vulnerability in undici. A fix is available for undici — see the affected versions and patch details below.

undici vulnerable to TLS certificate validation bypass via dropped requestTls in SOCKS5 ProxyAgent

Also known asGHSA-vmh5-mc38-953g

Published

Jun 17, 2026

Updated

Sep 12, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 16, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-9697.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs45th percentile — riskier than 45% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2026-9697 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

9Kother npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

undicinpm

217.5Mdownloads / week

Description

Impact

undici's ProxyAgent silently drops the requestTls option when configured with a SOCKS5 proxy URI (socks5:// or socks://). The target HTTPS connection through the SOCKS5 tunnel falls back to Node's default trust store, ignoring user-configured ca, cert, key, rejectUnauthorized, and servername settings.

Applications that pin to an internal or corporate CA via requestTls.ca will, when their proxy URI is SOCKS5, get the default Mozilla CA bundle as the trust anchor instead. Any cert signed by any publicly-trusted CA for the target hostname is accepted, breaking the intended pin and enabling MITM read and tamper of the HTTPS exchange.

Affected applications are those that use undici's ProxyAgent (or Socks5ProxyAgent directly) with SOCKS5 AND rely on requestTls for TLS scope restriction. The bug was introduced in undici 7.23.0 when SOCKS5 support was added.

Patches

Upgrade to undici v7.28.0 or v8.5.0.

Workarounds

No workaround is available within the SOCKS5 path. If a SOCKS5 proxy with TLS scope restriction is required and an upgrade is not yet possible, route the traffic through an HTTP-proxy ProxyAgent instead, where requestTls is honored correctly.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`undici`	≥ 7.23.0&&< 7.28.0	7.28.0`npm install undici@7.28.0`
📦npm	`undici`	≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.5.0	8.5.0`npm install undici@8.5.0`

Affected Products

1 product · 2 configurations

Application

undicinodejs

≥ 8.0.0 && < 8.5.0

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for undici, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update undici to 7.28.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-9697 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatImportant

This is an Important vulnerability. Applications using `undici`'s `ProxyAgent` with a SOCKS5 proxy URI will silently ignore user-configured TLS options, including custom Certificate Authorities. This bypasses intended security controls for HTTPS communication, enabling a remote attacker to perform Man-in-the-Middle…

Workaround published by Red Hat

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.

Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-9697 (CC BY 4.0)

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Cryostat 4 on RHEL 9	`cryostat/cryostat-grafana-dashboard-rhel9:4.2.0-13`	RHSA-2026:48151
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10	`nodejs24-1:24.18.0-1.el10_2`	RHSA-2026:35841
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	`nodejs:24-8100020260630152626.6d880403`	RHSA-2026:39868
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	`nodejs:24-9080020260626074955.rhel9`	RHSA-2026:35891
Cluster Observability Operator 1.5.3	`cluster-observability-operator/distributed-tracing-console-plugin-pf4-rhel9:1782840519`	RHSA-2026:34342
Red Hat Developer Hub 1.10	`rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9:1783448184`	RHSA-2026:36754
Red Hat Developer Hub 1.9	`rhdh/rhdh-hub-rhel9:1784210921`	RHSA-2026:41929
Red Hat Hardened Images	`nodejs26-main-11.16.0-1.26.3.0.1.2.hum1`	RHSA-2026:22380

Frequently Asked Questions

## Impact undici's `ProxyAgent` silently drops the `requestTls` option when configured with a SOCKS5 proxy URI (`socks5://` or `socks://`). The target HTTPS connection through the SOCKS5 tunnel falls back to Node's default trust store, ignoring user-configured `ca`, `cert`, `key`, `rejectUnauthorized`, and `servername` settings. Applications that pin to an internal or corporate CA via `requestTls.ca` will, when their proxy URI is SOCKS5, get the default Mozilla CA bundle as the trust anchor instead. Any cert signed by any publicly-trusted CA for the target hostname is accepted, breaking the

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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