Affects widely deployed NGINX (Open Source and Plus); allows bypass of client TLS authentication, exposing protected resources.
CVE-2026-97629
NGINX TLS session-ticket bug lets attackers forge client sessions and bypass client-cert auth.
Is CVE-2026-97629 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-97629 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.18% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-97629?
CVE-2026-97629 is rated High with a CVSS score of 8.3. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-97629?
Not known from our data. No patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-97629, which is not the same as no patch existing — a fix may have shipped without a tagged reference, or after this record was written. The vendor advisory is the only authority on whether a fix exists, and mitigations may be available regardless.
What does CVE-2026-97629 affect?
CVE-2026-97629 affects NGINX Open Source, NGINX Plus, Servers using ssl_session_cache without explicit ssl_session_ticket_key. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-97629?
Apply vendor patch when available; set explicit ssl_session_ticket_key and rotate session-ticket keys.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Remote attacker can forge TLS client sessions and bypass client-certificate verification, accessing resources protected by client auth.
Immediate action required
- affected>= 1.31.0 and < 1.31.7
- affected>= 1.30.0 and < 1.30.6
- affected>= 1.23.3 and < *
- affected>= 37.1.0 and < 37.1.0.1
- affected>= 37.0.0 and < 37.0.5.1
- affected>= R36 and < *
- affected>= R35 and < *
- affected>= R34 and < *
- affected>= R33 and < *
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.