CVE-2021-40831

Missing SNI validation and inconsistent CA override function behavior within AWS IoT Device SDKs on Apple devices

HIGH
7.2
CVSS Score
Published: November 22, 2021 at 11:41 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:07 AM UTC
4 products affected across 2 vendorsAmazon Web Services Internet of Things Device Software Development Kit V2Amazon Web Services AWS C IoAWS-C-IO· also runs on 1 platform

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Severity
HIGH7.2
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%

Description

The AWS IoT Device SDK v2 for Java, Python, C++ and Node.js appends a user supplied Certificate Authority (CA) to the root CAs instead of overriding it on macOS systems. Additionally, SNI validation is also not enabled when the CA has been “overridden”. TLS handshakes will thus succeed if the peer can be verified either from the user-supplied CA or the system’s default trust-store. Attackers with access to a host’s trust stores or are able to compromise a certificate authority already in the host's trust store (note: the attacker must also be able to spoof DNS in this case) may be able to use this issue to bypass CA pinning. An attacker could then spoof the MQTT broker, and either drop traffic and/or respond with the attacker's data, but they would not be able to forward this data on to the MQTT broker because the attacker would still need the user's private keys to authenticate against the MQTT broker. The 'aws_tls_ctx_options_override_default_trust_store_*' function within the aws-c-io submodule has been updated to address this behavior. This issue affects: Amazon Web Services AWS IoT Device SDK v2 for Java versions prior to 1.5.0 on macOS. Amazon Web Services AWS IoT Device SDK v2 for Python versions prior to 1.7.0 on macOS. Amazon Web Services AWS IoT Device SDK v2 for C++ versions prior to 1.14.0 on macOS. Amazon Web Services AWS IoT Device SDK v2 for Node.js versions prior to 1.6.0 on macOS. Amazon Web Services AWS-C-IO 0.10.7 on macOS.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 1.14.0v < 1.5.0v < 1.6.0v < 1.7.0
Affected range stops below 1.14.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.5.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.6.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.7.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
apple-macos (environment)
v < 1.14.0v < 1.5.0v < 1.6.0v < 1.7.0
Affected range stops below 1.14.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.5.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.6.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.7.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Runs on — not affected

The affected product only carries this flaw when running on these platforms. The platforms themselves are not vulnerable.

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
HIGH
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-295

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