Description
Tor before 0.4.9.11 is prone to a race condition where in just the right circumstances a rendezvous point could man-in-the-middle (impersonate) the onion service that the client was trying to reach.
Published: 2026-08-20
Score: 8.9 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: Impersonation / Man-in-the-Middle
Action: Immediate Patch
AI Analysis

Impact

Tor before 0.4.9.11 contains a race condition that allows a rendezvous point to impersonate the onion service a client is trying to reach. This flaw can enable a malicious relay to perform a man‑in‑the‑middle attack, exposing the client to credential theft or malicious content. The weakness stems from concurrent access to shared data structures, as identified by CWE-362.

Affected Systems

Affected systems include Tor 0.4.9.10 and earlier releases from the Torproject. No specific version range beyond the kernel is listed; administrators should treat all releases prior to 0.4.9.11 as vulnerable.

Risk and Exploitability

The CVSS score of 8.9 indicates a high severity, and the absence of an EPSS value does not imply low risk; the vulnerability is still exploitable under the right circumstances. It is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog, but the potential for a compromised rendezvous point to impersonate an onion service constitutes a serious threat. The probability of exploitation depends on the ability to control or influence a rendezvous point, which is plausible in networks where the adversary can run or compromise relays.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 21, 2026 at 01:28 UTC.

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Upgrade the Tor client and relays to version 0.4.9.11 or later, which fixes the race condition.
  • Deploy the patch to all network relays, removing or upgrading any nodes that remain on earlier versions.
  • Continuously monitor relay logs and network traffic to detect unusual rendezvous point activity or unintended service impersonation.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 21, 2026 at 01:28 UTC.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories yet.

History

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Title Race Condition Enables Rendezvous Point to Impersonate Onion Service in Tor

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Tor before 0.4.9.11 is prone to a race condition where in just the right circumstances a rendezvous point could man-in-the-middle (impersonate) the onion service that the client was trying to reach.
First Time appeared Torproject
Torproject tor
Weaknesses CWE-362
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:torproject:tor:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Torproject
Torproject tor
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: mitre

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-27T16:06:47.809Z

Reserved: 2026-08-20T20:52:29.384Z

Link: CVE-2026-77638

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-08-27T15:46:24.400Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2026-08-20T21:17:11.097

Modified: 2026-09-03T17:24:13.970

Link: CVE-2026-77638

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-08-21T01:30:05Z

Weaknesses
  • CWE-362

    Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')