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Fencer Intel
high 8.8

CVE-2026-53918 json

odhcpd DHCPv6 IA dangling first pointer use-after-free

published 4mo ago modified 12d ago also EUVD-2026-108969 , GHSA-44ff-jcwh-wgc2

Unreviewed: the maintainers' own advisory

Published by the maintainers on their GitHub repository openwrt/odhcpd. 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
8.8
version 4.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 50%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

odhcpd is the DHCPv6, DHCPv4, and router-advertisement server used by OpenWrt. Prior to version 25.12, odhcpd's DHCPv6 IA handler keeps a per-message `first` lease pointer so multiple IA options in one message reuse the same Reconfigure authentication key. A DHCPv6 REQUEST from an adjacent-network client can make the first IA set `first`, then make a later same-IAID IA fail the on-link check and free that same lease, leaving `first` dangling. A following IA in the same packet allocates a new lease and copies `first->key`, producing a 16-byte heap-use-after-free read. ASan confirms the UAF; native tracing shows the packet shape can deterministically reclaim the freed lease as the destination allocation, producing a zeroed Reconfigure key copy. The validated impact is unauthenticated adjacent-network denial of service and DHCPv6 Reconfigure/ForceRenew key confusion. Arbitrary PC control is not proven for this UAF alone. This issue has been patched in version 25.12.

Patch / fix

Is CVE-2026-53918 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
12d ago

Exploit prediction

0.62% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 50% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/openwrt/odhcpd/security/advisories/GHSA-44ff-jcwh-wgc2 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 8.8 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA 4.0 8.8 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Affected products

  • openwrt odhcpd

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-416 Use After Free
  • CWE-672 Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release
  • CWE-825 Expired Pointer Dereference

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 openwrt/odhcpd published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.