Skip to main content
VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-25501: free5gc smf · NULL Pointer Dereference

Affects free5gc smfSource CVE Database V5

0
Compare

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.6 Medium.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
6.6Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 29% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 24 Feb 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
free5gcsmfAffected
  • <=1.4.1
Fixed in–
GitHubfree5gc/free5gcpkg:github/free5gc/free5gcOther threatsAffected
  • <=1.4.1
Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-25501, organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Restrict access to the SMF PFCP interface (UDP port 8805) using network ACLs or firewalls to allow only trusted UPF IP addresses, minimizing exposure to spoofed or malicious PFCP messages. 2) Deploy deep packet inspection or protocol-aware filtering at the network edge to detect and drop malformed PFCP SessionReportRequest messages before they reach the SMF. 3) Modify the free5GC SMF codebase to add recovery mechanisms (e.g., Go's recover() function) around the PFCP handler dispatch to prevent the entire SMF process from crashing due to nil pointer dereferences. 4) Monitor SMF logs and network traffic for unusual PFCP message patterns or frequent process crashes indicative of exploitation attempts. 5) Engage with the free5GC community and vendors for updates or patches addressing this vulnerability and plan timely upgrades once fixes are available. 6) Consider deploying redundant SMF instances and failover mechanisms to maintain service continuity in case of process termination. These targeted mitigations go beyond generic advice by focusing on protocol-specific controls and code-level resilience.

Description

free5GC SMF provides Session Management Function for free5GC, an open-source project for 5th generation (5G) mobile core networks. In versions up to and including 1.4.1, SMF panics due to nil pointer dereference and the SMF process terminates. This is triggered by a malformed PFCP SessionReportRequest on the SMF PFCP (UDP/8805) interface. No known upstream fix is available, but some workarounds are available. ACL/firewall the PFCP interface so only trusted UPF IPs can reach SMF (reduce spoofing/abuse surface); drop/inspect malformed PFCP SessionReportRequest messages at the network edge where feasible, and/or add recover() around PFCP handler dispatch to avoid whole-process termination (mitigation only).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…