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CVE-2026-16659VulnerabilityPublished

boot/boot_serial/src/boot_serial.c declares const struct · MCUboot's serial-recovery image-upload handler bs_upload()

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-16659· Medium 4.0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.0 Medium : upgrade to 2.5.0 when convenient.

Data as of 13 Nov 2026, 04:40 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
4.0Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CNA (zephyr)CVSS 3.14.0
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.5.0
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 13 Nov 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 13 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade mcuboot to 2.5.0.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
mcu-toolsmcubootAffected
  • >=2.0.0 <2.5.0
Fixed in
  • 2.5.0
GitHubmcubootpkg:github/mcubootOther threatsAffected
  • >=2.0.0 <2.5.0
Fixed in
  • 2.5.0

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

AI-suggested

Users should verify if a patch is available from MCUboot or their platform vendor. Until then, avoid using serial recovery with encrypted images enabled on affected ports or implement additional input validation to prevent malformed payloads. Because the vulnerability requires a non-default build configuration, disabling MCUBOOT_ENC_IMAGES or serial recovery transport can mitigate exposure.

Description

MCUboot contains a vulnerability in its serial-recovery image-upload handler bs_upload() when built with encrypted images enabled (MCUBOOT_ENC_IMAGES) on Zephyr or Mynewt ports. A malformed initial serial-recovery upload command can cause a NULL pointer dereference leading to a transient denial of service (DoS) of the bootloader during recovery. This occurs because early validation failures skip initialization of a flash_area pointer, which is then dereferenced unconditionally. The vulnerability does not lead to memory corruption or information disclosure and requires a non-default build configuration with encryption and serial recovery enabled.

References

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