CVE-2026-103503: hexpm hex Improper Certificate Validation

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-103503 is a medium (CVSS 5.9) Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability in hexpm hex. EPSS estimates a 0.19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 8.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 12-10-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 16-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability in hexpm hex allows an attacker who can intercept HTTPS connections, and holds a certificate for a Hex host issued by a CA in Hex's bundled CA store, to impersonate that host to users who set cacerts_path to a CA store that leaves that CA out. cacerts_path (HEX_CACERTS_PATH) is documented as the path to the CA certificate store, used instead of the CA bundle that ships with Hex. Hex.HTTP.SSL.ssl_opts/1 passes the configured store as the cacerts option, but builds the partial_chain callback from the bundled store whether cacerts_path is set or not. Hex.HTTP.SSL.partial_chain/2 accepts a server chain when any certificate in it has the same public key as a bundled CA certificate, so a chain that leads to a bundled CA passes verification although the configured store doesn't contain that CA. Hostname verification still applies. This issue affects hex: from 0.20.2 before 2.5.2.

• CWE-295Improper Certificate ValidationThe product does not validate, or incorrectly validates, a certificate.