CVE-2026-44319: free5GC: NEF crashes via logger.Fatal on PFD notification delivery failure (attacker-controlled notifyUri)

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-05-27 · updated 2026-10-14
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

free5GC is an open-source implementation of the 5G core network. Prior to 4.2.2, free5GC's NEF terminates the entire process when a stored PFD-subscription notifyUri cannot be reached. In PfdChangeNotifier.FlushNotifications(), the notifier calls NnefPFDmanagementNotify(...) and on any delivery error invokes logger.PFDManageLog.Fatal(err), which is os.Exit(1)-equivalent in Go. An attacker who can create a PFD subscription with an attacker-chosen notifyUri and then trigger a PFD change can deterministically kill NEF on the asynchronous delivery attempt -- the process exits with status 1, dropping NEF's entire SBI surface until restart. 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

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