GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-295 vulnerability in github.com/pion/dtls. A fix is available for github.com/pion/dtls — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Pion/DLTS Accepts Client Certificates Without CertificateVerify
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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 GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/pion/dtls🐹github.com/pion/dtls/v2Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
A DTLS Client could provide a Certificate that it doesn't posses the private key for and Pion DTLS wouldn't reject it.
This issue affects users that are using Client certificates only. The connection itself is still secure. The Certificate provided by clients can't be trusted when using a Pion DTLS server prior to v2.1.5
Patches
Upgrade to Pion DTLS v2.1.5
Workarounds
No workarounds available, upgrade to Pion DTLS v2.1.5
References
Thank you to Juho Nurminen and the Mattermost team for discovering and reporting this.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Open an issue in Pion DTLS
- Email us at [email protected]
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/pion/dtls | all versions | 2.1.5go get github.com/pion/dtls@v2.1.5 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/pion/dtls/v2 | all versions | 2.1.5go get github.com/pion/dtls/v2@v2.1.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/pion/dtls, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/pion/dtls to 2.1.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-w45j-f832-hxvh across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.