Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-53604

Published
04 September 2026
Modified
04 September 2026
CVSS Score v4 7.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/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
EPSS Score 0.0012 2th percentile
Risk Priority 33 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-53604 is a high-severity Improper Removal of Sensitive Information Before Storage or Transfer (CWE-212) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to MP-6 (Media Sanitization) and SI-19 (De-identification) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A06:2025 Insecure Design

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

nebula-mesh is a self-hosted control plane for Slack Nebula mesh VPN. Prior to version 0.3.8, the web handler renderMobileBundle passes the real *pki.CAResolver directly into mobilebundle.Build. Inside Build, resolver.LoadByID decrypts the CA's ed25519 private key into a *pki.CAManager, but Build…

more

never calls CAManager.Wipe() on any return path. As a result, when a mobile-bundle request goes through the web UI and Build returns — especially on error (missing network, invalid prefix, DB error, signing failure) — the plaintext CA private key remains on the Go heap, unwiped, until garbage collection. An attacker able to read process memory (core dump, swap, memory-scraping) can recover the CA signing key, which would allow minting arbitrary host certificates for the mesh. The API handler already does this correctly: it loads the CAManager, defer caMgr.Wipe(), and wraps it in caManagerResolver. Only the web path is affected. This issue has been patched in version 0.3.8.

CWE(s)
CWE-212CWE-316

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1552.001 Credentials In Files Credential Access
Adversaries may search local file systems and remote file shares for files containing insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1552.002 Credentials in Registry Credential Access
Adversaries may search the Registry on compromised systems for insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1552.004 Private Keys Credential Access
Adversaries may search for private key certificate files on compromised systems for insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-49997Shared CWE-212
CVE-2026-20928Shared CWE-212
CVE-2026-54421Shared CWE-212
CVE-2025-27221Shared CWE-212
CVE-2025-62483Shared CWE-212
CVE-2025-68131Shared CWE-212
CVE-2024-6055Shared CWE-212
CVE-2026-36178Shared CWE-212
CVE-2026-43528Shared CWE-212
CVE-2025-64326Shared CWE-212

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 8 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V14.2.8
  • V14.3.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

MP-6 Media Sanitization good match

Requires sanitization of media before disposal, release, or reuse, directly stopping sensitive information from remaining in resources made available to unauthorized parties.

SI-19 De-identification good match

Mandates removal of specified PII elements from datasets before further use or sharing, addressing a subset of the improper-removal cases.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Access enforcement limits which subjects can read memory locations holding the cleartext data.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation confines the cleartext data to its own execution domain, shrinking exposure.

SC-4 Information in Shared System Resources partial match

Prevents unintended transfer of the cleartext contents through shared memory resources.

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.DS-10 mostly match
prevents

Directly addresses removal of confidential data from process memory and similar in-use contexts before exposure.

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.

A.8.10 Information deletion full match
degrades

Explicit information-deletion control directly addresses improper removal of sensitive data.

A.8.11 Data masking full match
prevents

Data-masking techniques can substitute for removal when full deletion is impractical.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect cleartext secrets in memory dumps or debug output.

A.8.33 Test information mostly match
prevents

Test-data protection rules require sanitization of production data used in testing.

A.5.12 Classification of information partial match
prevents

Classification identifies sensitive data that must be removed before storage or transfer.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
prevents

Information-transfer rules can require sanitization of sensitive content before sharing.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (3 rules)
  • V-248579 OL 8 must restrict access to the kernel message buffer. prevents CWE-212
  • V-248580 OL 8 must prevent kernel profiling by unprivileged users. prevents CWE-212
  • V-248551 A sticky bit must be set on all OL 8 public directories to prevent unauthorized and unintended information transferred via shared system resources. prevents CWE-212
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
  • V-271730 OL 9 must disable storing core dumps. prevents CWE-316
  • V-271745 OL 9 must restrict access to the kernel message buffer. prevents CWE-212
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230269 RHEL 8 must restrict access to the kernel message buffer. prevents CWE-212

References