Memory leak in the Mbed TLS crypto shim on failed cipher/AEAD operations leads to remotely triggered crypto denial of service
CVSS score
6.5
EPSS probability
—
Risk score
0.7
Published
2 h ago
Etkilenen ürün ve sürüm için yayımlanan güvenlik güncellemesini uygulayın.
Impact on My Inventory
Only the personal products you have added to your account are assessed; an organisation's inventory does not appear here.
Checking session…
Vulnerability description
DayBreach AI Explanation
Verified against sourcesSources read
1
Source agreement
Tam uyum
Evidence confidence
%55
Short explanation
A memory leak vulnerability exists in the Zephyr Mbed TLS crypto shim driver during failed cipher and AEAD operations. An unauthenticated attacker within radio range can transmit crafted frames to exhaust the heap and cause a permanent cryptographic denial of service.
This vulnerability allows attackers to permanently break all cryptographic operations until the device is rebooted. The heap can be exhausted within a fraction of a second using crafted frames, severely impacting system availability.
What should be done?
- Follow the vendor advisory to apply the necessary fixes
- Integrate the patch that routes post-setup failures through matching PSA abort calls
- Upgrade the device firmware to a secure version
Chain of evidence and sources
Başarısız şifreleme ve AEAD işlemleri, Mbed TLS yığınından kalıcı bellek sızıntısına neden olur.
Telsiz menzilindeki bir saldırgan, geçersiz MIC içeren çerçeveler göndererek yığını tüketebilir ve servis dışı bırakmaya yol açabilir.
Bu güvenlik açığı CVSS 3.1 taban puanına göre orta dereceli (6.5) etkiye sahiptir ve aktif istismarı bildirilmemiştir.
Show the technical text from the sources
The Mbed TLS crypto shim driver in drivers/crypto/crypto_mbedtls_shim.c drives PSA multipart cipher and AEAD operations. In mbedtls_cbc() and mbedtls_aead(), every error path after a successful psa_cipher_encrypt_setup() / psa_aead_decrypt_setup() returned directly without calling psa_cipher_abort() / psa_aead_abort(). Because the abort is the only thing that reaches mbedtls_cipher_free(), each failed operation permanently leaked the heap-allocated mbedtls_aes_context (roughly 288 bytes) that setup had allocated from Mbed TLS's fixed static heap (_mbedtls_heap[CONFIG_MBEDTLS_HEAP_SIZE], default 512 bytes). With CONFIG_PSA_CRYPTO_PROVIDER_TFM the leaked object is instead a finite secure-partition multipart-operation slot. The failure is chosen by an unauthenticated attacker. With CONFIG_NET_L2_IEEE802154_SECURITY backed by this driver, ieee802154_decrypt_auth() in subsys/net/l2/ieee802154/ieee802154_security.c invokes cipher_ccm_op() on every received secured frame, with no authentication ahead of the MIC check. A device in radio range can transmit a stream of syntactically valid 802.15.4 frames carrying a bogus MIC; each one makes psa_aead_verify() fail and leaks a block. The CBC path is reachable the same way through the OSDP secure channel, where CONFIG_OSDP_SC_ENABLED selects this shim and osdp_encrypt() / osdp_decrypt() leave out_buf_max unset, so every operation fails inside psa_cipher_update(). Exhausting the Mbed TLS heap — which the default configuration reaches after a couple of failed operations, and any realistic configuration reaches in well under a second of frames — makes all subsequent mbedtls_calloc() calls fail. Every later cryptographic operation in the image then fails permanently, including link-layer security and any TLS/DTLS sharing the same heap, until the device is rebooted. There is no memory corruption or information disclosure: frames with an invalid MIC are still rejected, so the impact is limited to availability. The fix routes all post-setup failures in mbedtls_cbc() and mbedtls_aead() through a common error: label that calls the matching PSA abort before returning. Setup failures need no change, since the PSA core aborts the operation itself when setup fails.
CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE: CWE-401
This explanation was compiled automatically from the source records. Scores, active exploitation, patch and exploit status come straight from the sources.
IMPACT: Affected Products and Software
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2026-87044 vulnerability. Where our threat engine knows the exact affected versions, they are listed below.
| ID | VENDOR | PRODUCT | ACTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | zephyrproject | zephyr | View |
RED HAT CSAF/VEX: Product Impact Check
SCORING: CVSS from Multiple Sources
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardised framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and display CVSS scores from several sources for each CVE.
| SCORE | VERSION | SEVERITY | VECTOR | SOURCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | CVSS V3_1 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | CVE CNA |
| 6.5 | CVSS V31 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | NVD |
Patch and Remediation Guide
Solution & Remediation Advisory
2 doğrulanmış yama veya düzeltilmiş sürüm kanıtı bulundu.
Public exploit and active exploitation status
Verified exploit intelligence
No verified public PoC, exploit repository or Metasploit module has been found for this CVE yet.
Weakness Classification and Attack Patterns (CWE & CAPEC)
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorises the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-87044 is associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-87044 weaknesses.
Attack Vector and Accessibility
Official Sources and Advisories
CVSS Vector Radar Chart
6.5 / 10Vulnerability Scoring Details
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HYama doğrulandı
Weakness Type (CWE & CAPEC)
Similar Vulnerabilities
Get this vulnerability through the API
Affected products, version ranges, exploitation status and patch information in a single request, with a free key.
curl -H "x-api-key: $DAYBREACH_API_KEY" \ "https://api.daybreach.dev/api/v1/intel/cves/CVE-2026-87044"