VULNERABILITY INTELLIGENCE
CVE-2021-3618
CVSS score7.4 HIGH
EPSS probability2.03%
CISA KEVNot currently listed
Published2022-03-23
Last modified2026-06-17
Description
ALPACA is an application layer protocol content confusion attack, exploiting TLS servers implementing different protocols but using compatible certificates, such as multi-domain or wildcard certificates. A MiTM attacker having access to victim's traffic at the TCP/IP layer can redirect traffic from one subdomain to another, resulting in a valid TLS session. This breaks the authentication of TLS and cross-protocol attacks may be possible where the behavior of one protocol service may compromise the other at the application layer.