Vulnerability in Refraction-Networking Utls

CVE-2026-26994

uTLS is a fork of crypto/tls, created to customize ClientHello for fingerprinting resistance while still using it for the handshake. In versions 1.6.7 and below, uTLS did not implement the TLS 1.3 downgrade protection mechanism specified in RFC 8446 Section 4.1.3 when using a uTLS ClientHello spec. This allowed an active network adversary to downgrade TLS 1.3 connections initiated by a uTLS client to a lower TLS version (e.g., TLS 1.2) by modifying the ClientHello message to exclude the SupportedVersions extension, causing the server to respond with a TLS 1.2 ServerHello (along with a downgrade canary in the ServerHello random field). Because uTLS did not check the downgrade canary in the ServerHello random field, clients would accept the downgraded connection without detecting the attack. This attack could also be used by an active network attacker to fingerprint uTLS connections. This issue has been fixed in version 1.7.0.

EPSS: 0.003 (18.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-26994?
CVE-2026-26994 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Refraction-Networking Utls, classified under Protection Mechanism Failure. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2026-02-20.
How severe is CVE-2026-26994?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.