What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-42081: free5GC: UE Security Capability bypass on NGAP PathSwitchRequest

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.1 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2026-05-27 · updated 2026-10-14
• Weakness: CWE-358

Description

free5GC is an open-source implementation of the 5G core network. Prior to 4.2.2, the AMF in Free5GC does not verify the UE Security Capabilities received in NGAP PathSwitchRequest messages against its locally stored values, as mandated by 3GPP TS 33.501 §6.7.3.1. A malicious gNB can overwrite the AMF's stored UE security capabilities with arbitrary values, which are then propagated in PathSwitchRequest Acknowledge messages and subsequent Handover Request messages. This leads to persistent handover denial-of-service for affected UEs. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.2.

Affected products

• free5gc: before 4.2.2 — fixed in 4.2.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: free5gc 4.2.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/free5gc/free5gc/security/advisories/GHSA-77x9-rf64-92gv
• https://github.com/free5gc/free5gc/security/advisories/GHSA-77x9-rf64-92gv

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