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nebula-mesh: Decrypted CA private key persists in heap after signing

Type: advisorySources: OSV

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh virtual private network. Prior to version 0.3.7, internal/pki/resolver.go:36-64 constructs a CAManager with the plaintext ed25519.PrivateKey after unwrapping via the master key; internal/pki/ca.go:13-16 stores it. Callers at internal/api/enroll.go:116, internal/api/updates.go:297, and internal/api/mobile_bundle.go:40 use the manager for one Sign() and drop the reference on function return — but the underlying slice contents are not wiped before release. The keystore package's contract (internal/keystore/keystore.go doc: "Callers MUST zeroise the returned plaintext DEK as soon as it is no longer needed") is not met by the CAManager consumer. Decrypted CA private keys persist in process heap until Go's GC scavenges the underlying slice — minutes to hours under load, indefinitely on idle servers. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.7.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2026-48025
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
4 Nov 2026, 16:54 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

nebula-mesh: Decrypted CA private key persists in heap after signing

core-osv · Original source

Published 28 Jul 2026, 17:40 UTC

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh virtual private network. Prior to version 0.3.7, internal/pki/resolver.go:36-64 constructs a CAManager with the plaintext ed25519.PrivateKey after unwrapping via the master key; internal/pki/ca.go:13-16 stores it. Callers at internal/api/enroll.go:116, internal/api/updates.go:297, and internal/api/mobile_bundle.go:40 use the manager for one Sign() and drop the reference on function return — but the underlying slice contents are not wiped before release. The keystore package's contract (internal/keystore/keystore.go doc: "Callers MUST zeroise the returned plaintext DEK as soon as it is no longer needed") is not met by the CAManager consumer. Decrypted CA private keys persist in process heap until Go's GC scavenges the underlying slice — minutes to hours under load, indefinitely on idle servers. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.7.

osv:CVE-2026-48025
Complete source record
{
  "id": "ab1e9316bf85972786b501616596a94fb32af50bfa6c70d8e213153b756dab76",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-48025",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "nebula-mesh: Decrypted CA private key persists in heap after signing",
    "summary": "nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh virtual private network. Prior to version 0.3.7, internal/pki/resolver.go:36-64 constructs a CAManager with the plaintext ed25519.PrivateKey after unwrapping via the master key; internal/pki/ca.go:13-16 stores it. Callers at internal/api/enroll.go:116, internal/api/updates.go:297, and internal/api/mobile_bundle.go:40 use the manager for one Sign() and drop the reference on function return — but the underlying slice contents are not wiped before release. The keystore package's contract (internal/keystore/keystore.go doc: \"Callers MUST zeroise the returned plaintext DEK as soon as it is no longer needed\") is not met by the CAManager consumer. Decrypted CA private keys persist in process heap until Go's GC scavenges the underlying slice — minutes to hours under load, indefinitely on idle servers. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.7.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-48025",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2026-48025",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2026-48025",
        "GHSA-8h84-fhqq-q58v",
        "GO-2026-5255"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "01e9fae8cbff05ee4c9cf04b14f712205e05517d"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "bca1d5914fbaf3517d3b86145a802c00de4a8122"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "0.3.7"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "bca1d5914fbaf3517d3b86145a802c00de4a8122"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "01e9fae8cbff05ee4c9cf04b14f712205e05517d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_TAG",
                    "original_tag": "v0.3.7"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v0.3.6",
            "v0.3.5",
            "v0.3.4",
            "v0.3.3",
            "v0.3.2",
            "v0.3.1",
            "v0.3.0",
            "v0.2.0",
            "v0.1.2",
            "v0.1.1",
            "v0.1.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-48025.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:37.620096297Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/releases/tag/v0.3.7",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/48xxx/CVE-2026-48025.json",
        "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/security/advisories/GHSA-8h84-fhqq-q58v",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48025",
        "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/commit/bca1d5914fbaf3517d3b86145a802c00de4a8122"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-244"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/48xxx/CVE-2026-48025.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-48025",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 504965,
  "published_at": "2026-07-28T17:40:37.329+00:00"
}