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Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2026-115683

epiphany: TLS certificate warning bypass via race in tlsErrorPage message handler

publishedCWE-367

A race condition in Epiphany allows a malicious website to bypass the TLS/SSL certificate warning page. Epiphany registers the main-world script message handler "tlsErrorPage" so its internal TLS error page can implement "Accept Risk and Proceed". The handler was registered immediately before loading the error page, leaving a brief window where the previously loaded untrusted origin could still call window.webkit.messageHandlers.tlsErrorPage.postMessage(...). The only authorization check compares a numeric WebKit page id that increments predictably; an attacker can burst-guess ids and approve a certificate exception with no user click. If a victim visits malicious site A that redirects to site B with an invalid certificate, site A can, for a few milliseconds, disable TLS certificate error warnings for host B until Epiphany is restarted, enabling man-in-the-middle or site spoofing for that host. Upstream report: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/work_items/2978 Proof of concept: https://beford.net/poc/ssl_poc.html Fix: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/merge_requests/2245 (register handlers on LOAD_COMMITTED). No fixed release tagged yet; reporter and maintainer describe all current versions as affected. Maintainer notes the risky registration timing dates to commit 1da1caed (Epiphany 45.x era); before that the handlers were always registered and similarly reachable from web content.

Technical severity6.8 mediumCVSS 3.1 · CNA: fedora
Published2026-10-30Source updated 2026-11-02
Collected2026-11-022 attributed sources

Fixes and workarounds

Workaround

Until a fixed Epiphany build is installed, avoid following links from untrusted sites to HTTPS destinations, and do not rely on Epiphany for sensitive sites when browsing untrusted content. Restrict network access for untrusted browsing where practical (https://cmetaxonomy.org/entries/CME-203.html). Restarting the browser clears any attacker-installed certificate exceptions for the session.

Source: CNA: fedora

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority
Epiphany
GNOME
epiphany
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany
≥ 0; < 51.1 (affected, semver)
Other versions: affected
CNA: fedora

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

CVSS scores, vectors and reporting authorities
Version / scoreVectorAuthority
3.1 / 6.8
medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:NCNA: fedora

Exploit evidence

References