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Fencer Intel
low 2.0

CVE-2026-127915 json

TLV iterator does not bound each entry against the declared TLV area in MCUboot bootutil

published yesterday modified 7h ago also EUVD-2026-124791 , GHSA-4fp3-3qw2-25jv

Unreviewed: the maintainers' own advisory

Published by the maintainers on their GitHub repository mcu-tools/mcuboot. GitHub has not reviewed it into the GitHub Advisory Database, so the affected packages and versions are the maintainers' word. Read the full advisory on GitHub.

cvss
2.0
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The MCUboot TLV iterator bootutil_tlv_iter_next() in boot/bootutil/src/tlv.c walks image trailer TLVs with a single loop guard (it->tlv_off < it->tlv_end) and advances by sizeof(struct image_tlv) + tlv.it_len using the attacker-controlled it_len field, without validating that the entry's header or payload stays within it->tlv_end. As a result the 4-byte header read can extend up to 3 bytes past the declared TLV area, and the returned (off, len) can describe a payload that runs past it.

The path is pre-authentication: TLVs are parsed during bootutil_img_validate() before the signature is verified, and a crafted image can be presented through DFU / serial-recovery / OTA. However the impact is contained by surrounding guards: bootutil_img_validate() first rejects a TLV area larger than bootutil_max_image_size(), the default LOAD_IMAGE_DATA sink is flash_area_read() which bounds-checks against the flash partition and fails an out-of-partition read, and every payload consumer (EXPECTED_HASH_TLV, EXPECTED_KEY_TLV, EXPECTED_SIG_TLV, IMAGE_TLV_SEC_CNT) clamps len against a fixed buffer before copying.

The residual effect in a default flash build is therefore an out-of-region read confined to the attacker's own slot partition whose result is never observable, yielding at worst a clean validation failure rather than memory corruption or information disclosure. A genuine (though still bounded) out-of-bounds read remains under the non-default MCUBOOT_RAM_LOAD configuration, where LOAD_IMAGE_DATA is an unchecked memcpy. The fix is to validate each entry's header and payload against it->tlv_end inside the iterator.

Patch / fix

  • mcu-tools mcuboot 2.5.0

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Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-13).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 2.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected products

  • mcu-tools mcuboot

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

The maintainers of mcu-tools/mcuboot published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.