CVE-2026-55996: DoS (CVSS 4.3)

Description

A denial-of-service vulnerability was identified in multiple TLS listeners in Rancher. Both the cattle-cluster-agent component running in downstream clusters and the Rancher server itself use the dynamiclistener library to serve TLS traffic. Without an effective CN filter configured, dynamiclistener automatically appended to each serving certificate any hostname presented via Server Name Indication (SNI) in incoming TLS requests. An unauthenticated attacker with network access within the affected cluster could send a large number of TLS requests with distinct hostnames, causing the serving certificate to accumulate an unbounded number of Subject Alternative Names (SANs). Eventually, the certificate grows large enough that TLS handshakes fail with an excessive message size error, causing a denial of service on the affected listeners.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2026-55996?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

4.3

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0015

Probability of exploitation

0.05%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-770 CWE-770

References

Other References

https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2026-55996 https://github.com/rancher/rancher/security/advisories/GHSA-9jxv-832x-45q9

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-55996? +

A denial-of-service vulnerability was identified in multiple TLS listeners in Rancher. Both the cattle-cluster-agent component running in downstream clusters and the Rancher server itself use the dynamiclistener library to serve TLS traffic. Without an effective CN filter configured, dynamiclistener automatically appended to each serving certificate any hostname presented via Server Name Indication (SNI) in incoming TLS requests. An unauthenticated attacker with network access within the affected cluster could send a large number of TLS requests with distinct hostnames, causing the serving certificate to accumulate an unbounded number of Subject Alternative Names (SANs). Eventually, the certificate grows large enough that TLS handshakes fail with an excessive message size error, causing a denial of service on the affected listeners. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.3 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2026-55996? +

CVE-2026-55996 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 4.3 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance. The EPSS score is 0.0015, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-55996? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-39313

mcp-framework is a framework for building Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. In versions 0.2.21 and below, the readRequestBody() function in …

CVE-2026-35469

spdystream is a Go library for multiplexing streams over SPDY connections. In versions 0.5.0 and below, the SPDY/3 frame parser …

CVE-2026-39803

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in mtrudel bandit allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion. …

CVE-2026-39804

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in mtrudel bandit allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via memory exhaustion …

CVE-2026-32688

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-plug plug_cowboy allows unauthenticated remote denial of service via atom table …

CVE-2026-10573

A denial-of-service security issue exists in 1734 POINT I/O™ module. The security issue stems from improper handling of crafted CIP …

CVE-2026-55996