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nebula-mesh: CA private key not zeroized on web mobile-bundle error paths

Type: advisorySources: OSV

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh VPN. Prior to version 0.3.8, the web handler renderMobileBundle passes the real *pki.CAResolver directly into mobilebundle.Build. Inside Build, resolver.LoadByID decrypts the CA's ed25519 private key into a *pki.CAManager, but Build never calls CAManager.Wipe() on any return path. As a result, when a mobile-bundle request goes through the web UI and Build returns — especially on error (missing network, invalid prefix, DB error, signing failure) — the plaintext CA private key remains on the Go heap, unwiped, until garbage collection. An attacker able to read process memory (core dump, swap, memory-scraping) can recover the CA signing key, which would allow minting arbitrary host certificates for the mesh. The API handler already does this correctly: it loads the CAManager, defer caMgr.Wipe(), and wraps it in caManagerResolver. Only the web path is affected. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.8.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2026-53604
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
7 Nov 2026, 09:39 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

nebula-mesh: CA private key not zeroized on web mobile-bundle error paths

core-osv · Original source

Published 4 Sept 2026, 19:40 UTC

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh VPN. Prior to version 0.3.8, the web handler renderMobileBundle passes the real *pki.CAResolver directly into mobilebundle.Build. Inside Build, resolver.LoadByID decrypts the CA's ed25519 private key into a *pki.CAManager, but Build never calls CAManager.Wipe() on any return path. As a result, when a mobile-bundle request goes through the web UI and Build returns — especially on error (missing network, invalid prefix, DB error, signing failure) — the plaintext CA private key remains on the Go heap, unwiped, until garbage collection. An attacker able to read process memory (core dump, swap, memory-scraping) can recover the CA signing key, which would allow minting arbitrary host certificates for the mesh. The API handler already does this correctly: it loads the CAManager, defer caMgr.Wipe(), and wraps it in caManagerResolver. Only the web path is affected. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.8.

osv:CVE-2026-53604
Complete source record
{
  "id": "2b262fb867a17c6726ba0128bc6fc45a1e14321fc4d982f933ed0306963b942c",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-53604",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "nebula-mesh: CA private key not zeroized on web mobile-bundle error paths",
    "summary": "nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh VPN. Prior to version 0.3.8, the web handler renderMobileBundle passes the real *pki.CAResolver directly into mobilebundle.Build. Inside Build, resolver.LoadByID decrypts the CA's ed25519 private key into a *pki.CAManager, but Build never calls CAManager.Wipe() on any return path. As a result, when a mobile-bundle request goes through the web UI and Build returns — especially on error (missing network, invalid prefix, DB error, signing failure) — the plaintext CA private key remains on the Go heap, unwiped, until garbage collection. An attacker able to read process memory (core dump, swap, memory-scraping) can recover the CA signing key, which would allow minting arbitrary host certificates for the mesh. The API handler already does this correctly: it loads the CAManager, defer caMgr.Wipe(), and wraps it in caManagerResolver. Only the web path is affected. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.8.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-53604",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2026-53604",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2026-53604",
        "GHSA-2p2f-px33-4vv5",
        "GO-2026-5984"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V4",
          "score": "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/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": "7cb01bab281ded557f8b6c81dab5f48d4c10182e"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1f1ab9aa8472239763d967e3d50a3cd53a1a79b9"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "0.3.8"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "1f1ab9aa8472239763d967e3d50a3cd53a1a79b9"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "7cb01bab281ded557f8b6c81dab5f48d4c10182e"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_TAG",
                    "original_tag": "v0.3.8"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v0.3.7",
            "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-2026-53604.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:50.600466438Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/releases/tag/v0.3.8",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/53xxx/CVE-2026-53604.json",
        "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/security/advisories/GHSA-2p2f-px33-4vv5",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53604",
        "https://github.com/forgekeep/nebula-mesh/commit/1f1ab9aa8472239763d967e3d50a3cd53a1a79b9"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-212",
          "CWE-316"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/53xxx/CVE-2026-53604.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-53604",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 518901,
  "published_at": "2026-09-04T19:40:51.423+00:00"
}