CVE-2026-6016
Published: 10 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-6016 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Tenda Ac9 Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 23.3th 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 are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-16 (Memory Protection).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly remediates the stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability by applying vendor firmware patches to the Tenda AC9 router.
Enforces input validation on the WANS argument in POST requests to /goform/WizardHandle, preventing the buffer overflow triggered by malformed data.
Provides memory protections like stack canaries or address randomization to block code execution from stack-based buffer overflows in decodePwd.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Stack-based buffer overflow in the router's public web interface POST handler (/goform/WizardHandle) directly enables remote exploitation of a public-facing application, leading to RCE with high impact.
NVD Description
A vulnerability was found in Tenda AC9 15.03.02.13. The affected element is the function decodePwd of the file /goform/WizardHandle of the component POST Request Handler. Performing a manipulation of the argument WANS results in stack-based buffer overflow. The attack can…
more
be initiated remotely. The exploit has been made public and could be used.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-6016 is a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the Tenda AC9 router running firmware version 15.03.02.13. The issue resides in the decodePwd function within the /goform/WizardHandle file of the POST Request Handler component. It is triggered by manipulating the WANS argument in a POST request, as documented in the CVE description published on 2026-04-10. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer) and CWE-121 (Stack-based Buffer Overflow).
The vulnerability can be exploited remotely by an attacker with low privileges (PR:L), requiring no user interaction and low attack complexity over the network (AV:N/AC:L). Successful exploitation allows high-impact consequences, including unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information (C:H), modification of data or configuration (I:H), and denial of service or system disruption (A:H), potentially leading to full remote code execution on the affected device.
VulDB advisories (e.g., vuln/356572) confirm the exploit has been made public and is available for use, with a proof-of-concept detailed on a Notion site. The Tenda vendor website (tenda.com.cn) is referenced for potential firmware updates or mitigation guidance, though specific patch details are not outlined in the provided references. Security practitioners should prioritize firmware upgrades and restrict administrative access to mitigate risks.
Details
- CWE(s)