CVE-2026-77206IKEv2 pre-authentication Null Pointer Dereference in EAP code
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 0.66%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 48% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Libreswan's IKEv2 state machine has a null pointer dereference bug in the EAP handling code for authentication. As a result of inconsistency within the IKEv2 state machine code, this bug can be triggered by any IKEv2 connection, even if EAP is not configured at all. The error is caused by a fall-through where it incorrectly dereferences ike->sa.st_eap which is NULL. A malicious IKE_AUTH packet can trigger this bug, meaning the peer does not need to be authenticated. The bug results in a crash and restart of the pluto daemon. No remote code execution is possible. Continued exploitation can cause a denial of service.
Timeline
ID reserved
By libreswan
- 54 days later
· 54 days later
Published
- 3 days later
· 3 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| libreswanCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Awaiting Analysis | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.66% · top 48% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
The Libreswan Project · libreswan
- affected 4.7 – ≤ 5.3.2
- affected 5.4 – ≤ 5.4
- unaffected 5.3.3
- unaffected 5.4.1
What to do
Solution: Upgrade to libreswan 5.3.3 or 5.4.1 or later. Note that EAP was not functional in libreswan 5.3. If you need EAP support, use 5.4.1 or later. Patches are available at https://libreswan.org/security/CVE-2026-77206/
Workaround: Apply the available patch or upgrade to a supported version. No configuration-based workaround is available.
Exploitation: No known exploitation in the wild. Exploitation requires sending a malicious IKE_AUTH packet and does not require peer authentication.
References
References2
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-100748 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-77206)Record last updated .