Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-1739

Memory Safety in Free5Gc Pcf ≤ 1.4.1

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
02 February 2026
Modified
11 February 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/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
EPSS Score 0.0070 50th percentile
Risk Priority 40 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-1739 is a medium-severity Improper Resource Shutdown or Release (CWE-404) vulnerability in Free5Gc Pcf. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 50th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2026-1739 is a null pointer dereference vulnerability in the Free5GC Policy Control Function (PCF) component, affecting versions up to 1.4.1. The issue resides in the HandleCreateSmPolicyRequest function within the file internal/sbi/processor/smpolicy.go. It is classified under CWE-404 (Improper Resource Shutdown or Release) and CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference), with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L), indicating medium severity primarily impacting availability.

An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by manipulating the HandleCreateSmPolicyRequest function, leading to a denial-of-service condition through a crash caused by the null pointer dereference. The attack requires low complexity, no user interaction, and no privileges, making it feasible over the network without changing the scope of impact.

Mitigation is available via a patch identified by the commit hash df535f5524314620715e842baf9723efbeb481a7, accessible through the Free5GC PCF GitHub repository. Applying this patch is the recommended fix, as detailed in related GitHub issues #803 and pull request #62. The exploit has been publicly disclosed and may be usable by attackers.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability has been found in Free5GC pcf up to 1.4.1. This affects the function HandleCreateSmPolicyRequest of the file internal/sbi/processor/smpolicy.go. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. The exploit has been…

more

disclosed to the public and may be used. The identifier of the patch is df535f5524314620715e842baf9723efbeb481a7. Applying a patch is the recommended action to fix this issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1489 Service Stop Impact
Adversaries may stop or disable services on a system to render those services unavailable to legitimate users.
T1499.001 OS Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may launch a denial of service (DoS) attack targeting an endpoint's operating system (OS).
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-66720Same product: Free5Gc Pcf
CVE-2026-1975Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-1976Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-1973Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-1682Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-41135Same product: Free5Gc Pcf
CVE-2026-1974Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-2525Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-1683Same vendor: Free5Gc
CVE-2026-1684Same vendor: Free5Gc

Affected Assets

free5gc
pcf
≤ 1.4.1

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect resource releases after code is written.

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

Engineering principles can require explicit resource acquisition/release patterns that stop improper shutdown from being introduced.

Priority-based resource allocation limits the blast radius when released resources are not returned to the pool.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly include coding standards for correct resource allocation and release.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring can detect resource exhaustion caused by improper shutdown or release.

ID.AM-08 partial match
prevents

Lifecycle management of assets can encompass proper resource release at end-of-life or shutdown.

PR.IR-04 partial match
prevents

Capacity management helps surface leaks from unreleased resources but does not prevent the coding flaw.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Including restart, recovery and media-handling instructions reduces the likelihood that resources or sensitive data will be left in an exposed or improperly released state after a failure.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References