CVE-2026-25501CWE-476

free5GC SMF crash (nil pointer dereference) on PFCP SessionReportRequest when ReportType.DLDR is set but DownlinkDataReport IE is missing

Medium · published February 24, 2026

CVSS v4.0
6.6
EPSS
1%
Percentile
46.6
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

free5GC SMF provides Session Management Function for free5GC, an open-source project for 5th generation (5G) mobile core networks. In versions up to and including 1.4.1, SMF panics due to nil pointer dereference and the SMF process terminates. This is triggered by a malformed PFCP SessionReportRequest on the SMF PFCP (UDP/8805) interface. No known upstream fix is available, but some workarounds are available. ACL/firewall the PFCP interface so only trusted UPF IPs can reach SMF (reduce spoofing/abuse surface); drop/inspect malformed PFCP SessionReportRequest messages at the network edge where feasible, and/or add recover() around PFCP handler dispatch to avoid whole-process termination (mitigation only).

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v4.0
6.6 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U
EPSS
0.00573 · 46.6th percentile
Weakness
CWE-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference
Published
2026-02-24T00:10Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 24 FEB 00:10Z
    free5GC SMF crash (nil pointer dereference) on PFCP SessionReportRequest when ReportType.DLDR is set but DownlinkDataReport IE is missing
    cvelistv5