High severity · published May 27, 2026
CVE-2026-44328
free5GC: SMF UPI DELETE /upi/v1/upNodesLinks/{ref} panics on AN-node deletion via nil UPF dereference; unauthenticated, state-mutating
8.2
CVSS
0.3%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
free5GC is an open-source implementation of the 5G core network. Prior to 4.2.2, free5GC's SMF mounts the UPI management route group without inbound OAuth2 middleware. On top of that, the DELETE /upi/v1/upNodesLinks/{upNodeRef} handler unconditionally dereferences upNode.UPF after the type-guarded async release, even though AN-typed nodes are constructed without a UPF object. As a result, a single unauthenticated DELETE /upi/v1/upNodesLinks/gNB1 request crashes the handler with a nil-pointer panic AND mutates the in-memory user-plane topology before panicking (the UpNodeDelete(upNodeRef) line runs first). This is an unauthenticated, state-mutating panic-DoS sink that an off-path network attacker can trigger by name against any AN entry. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.2.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.3% · higher than 25% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
FR
free5gc · free5gc
< 4.2.2 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44328
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-44328
Exploit
https://github.com/free5gc/free5gc/issues/905
Exploit
https://github.com/free5gc/free5gc/security/advisories/GHSA-p9mg-74mg-cwwr
Patch
https://github.com/free5gc/smf/commit/b57bc48081c3d3a2f333d02eb78e4fd31a120deb
Issue Tracking
https://github.com/free5gc/smf/pull/199
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