Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-5474

Memory Safety in Nasa Core Flight System ≤ 7.0.0

Memory Safety
Published
03 April 2026
Modified
24 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:L/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 0.0037 30th percentile
Risk Priority 32 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-5474 is a medium-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Nasa Core Flight System. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 30th 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 SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — 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-2026-5474 is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in NASA's core Flight System (cFS) versions up to 7.0.0. The issue resides in the CFE_MSG_GetSize function within the file apps/to_lab/fsw/src/to_lab_passthru_encode.c, part of the CCSDS Packet Header Handler component. Triggered by packet manipulation, it stems from improper bounds checking, as classified under CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer) and CWE-122 (Heap-based Buffer Overflow). The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.3 (AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L), indicating medium severity.

An attacker with adjacent network access (AV:A) can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the local network without requiring privileges (PR:N) or user interaction (UI:N), due to low attack complexity (AC:L). Successful exploitation leads to limited impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:L/I:L/A:L), potentially allowing partial data disclosure, modification, or denial of service via heap corruption within the affected cFS instance.

References, including the NASA cFS GitHub repository and issue #952, indicate the project was notified early via an issue report but has not yet responded or issued patches. VulDB entries (vuln/355078 and related CTI) document the flaw but provide no mitigation guidance beyond general network segmentation to limit adjacent access. Security practitioners should monitor the GitHub issue for updates and consider isolating cFS deployments from untrusted local networks.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability was found in NASA cFS up to 7.0.0. This affects the function CFE_MSG_GetSize of the file apps/to_lab/fsw/src/to_lab_passthru_encode.c of the component CCSDS Packet Header Handler. Performing a manipulation results in heap-based buffer overflow. The attacker must have access to…

more

the local network to execute the attack. The project was informed of the problem early through an issue report but has not responded yet.

CWE(s)
CWE-119CWE-122

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-5475Same product: Nasa Core Flight System
CVE-2026-22697Same vendor: Nasa
CVE-2025-54878Same vendor: Nasa
CVE-2026-22027Same vendor: Nasa
CVE-2025-29911Same vendor: Nasa
CVE-2025-30216Same vendor: Nasa
CVE-2025-29912Same vendor: Nasa
CVE-2026-15506Shared CWE-119, CWE-122
CVE-2025-7069Shared CWE-119, CWE-122
CVE-2025-11010Shared CWE-119, CWE-122

Affected Assets

nasa
core flight system
≤ 7.0.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and memory-error detectors) can discover heap overflows after they have been coded.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation enforces bounds checking on data written to heap buffers, directly stopping the overflow condition from being introduced.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure engineering principles require memory-safe design and coding that structurally avoids buffer-boundary violations.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory protection restricts exploitation impact of buffer overflows without eliminating the underlying coding flaw.

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 full match
prevents

Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-safety rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

A.8.32 Change management none match
none

Change management ensures controlled deployment of fixes for discovered heap-overflow vulnerabilities.

References