CAPEC-473
Signature Spoof
An attacker generates a message or datablock that causes the recipient to believe that the message or datablock was generated and cryptographically signed by an authoritative or reputable source, misleading a victim or victim operating system into performing malicious actions.
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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-473: Signature Spoof: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/473.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/473?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.
Prerequisites
The victim or victim system is dependent upon a cryptographic signature-based verification system for validation of one or more security events or actions.
The validation can be bypassed via an attacker-provided signature that makes it appear that the legitimate authoritative or reputable source provided the signature.
Skills required
- High skill
Technical understanding of how signature verification algorithms work with data and applications
Consequences
| Impact | Affects | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Gain Privileges | Access Control, Authentication |
Weaknesses it exploits
- CWE-20 Improper Input Validation
- CWE-290 Authentication Bypass by Spoofing
- CWE-327 Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
Recent CVEs with these weaknesses
- 9.6CVE-2026-108186
Improper Input Validation in Zoom Workplace for Windows may allow an unauthenticated user to conduct an escalation of privilege via network access.
- 4.9CVE-2026-105427
Improper input validation in Ivanti EPMM before version 12.10.0.1, 12.9.0.3, and 12.8.0.5 allows a remote authenticated attacker with admin privileges to permanently disable all Apache HTTPS services resulting in denial of service.
- 6.7CVE-2026-105426
Improper input validation in Ivanti EPMM before version 12.10.0.1, 12.9.0.3, and 12.8.0.5 allows a remote authenticated attacker with admin privileges to set arbitrary Linux kernel parameters as root.
- 4.3CVE-2026-123178
An insufficient input validation vulnerability in the listed NETGEAR Orbi Models router allows an authenticated administrator connected to the local network to execute unauthorized commands and modify the router’s software and functionalit…
- 6.3CVE-2026-125871
The sourcecache expansion module in MISP Modules (misp-modules) contains a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability. When a user with permission to create or modify attributes of type 'link' or 'url' submits an attribute value, the…
- 5.5CVE-2026-125703
A flaw was found in the GStreamer gst-plugins-bad MXF plugin. Insufficient bounds checks when parsing crafted VANC data can cause an out-of-bounds read in the demuxer, while an incorrect buffer size calculation when muxing multiple ancilla…
- 5.3CVE-2026-125113
The XRootD project provides a high-performance, fault-tolerant, and secure solution for handling large amounts of data distributed across multiple storage resources. Prior to version 5.9.2, XRootD's rpCheck() function in src/XrdXrootd/XrdX…
- 6.9CVE-2026-63634
pympp is a Python SDK for the Machine Payments Protocol. Prior to version 0.9.1, when the server acts as the fee_payer, pympp validates calldata using eth_abi decoding, which is lenient about trailing bytes. The FeePayerPolicy caps gas_lim…
The newest records naming one of them. Each weakness's page lists them all.
Related attack patterns
- Part of
- CAPEC-151 Identity Spoofing
- More specific patterns
- CAPEC-459 Creating a Rogue Certification Authority Certificate
- CAPEC-474 Signature Spoofing by Key Theft
- CAPEC-475 Signature Spoofing by Improper Validation
- CAPEC-476 Signature Spoofing by Misrepresentation
- CAPEC-477 Signature Spoofing by Mixing Signed and Unsigned Content
- CAPEC-479 Malicious Root Certificate
- CAPEC-485 Signature Spoofing by Key Recreation
Examples
An attacker provides a victim with a malicious executable disguised as a legitimate executable from an establ…
An attacker provides a victim with a malicious executable disguised as a legitimate executable from an established software by signing the executable with a forged cryptographic key. The victim's operating system attempts to verify the executable by checking the signature, the signature is considered valid, and the attackers' malicious executable runs.
An attacker exploits weaknesses in a cryptographic algorithm to that allow a private key for a legitimate sof…
An attacker exploits weaknesses in a cryptographic algorithm to that allow a private key for a legitimate software vendor to be reconstructed, attacker-created malicious software is cryptographically signed with the reconstructed key, and is installed by the victim operating system disguised as a legitimate software update from the software vendor.
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