free5GC's SMF UPI management interface lacks auth middleware; unauthenticated topology read/write requests reach handlers

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

10.0 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2026-44329: 0.33% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 26.28 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Summary free5GC's SMF mounts the UPI management route group without OAuth2/bearer-token authorization middleware. A network attacker who can reach SMF on the SBI can hit UPI endpoints with no Authorization header at all, and the requests reach the SMF business handlers. In the running Docker lab this was directly demonstrated for read (GET /upi/v1/upNodesLinks), write (POST /upi/v1/upNodesLinks with attacker-controlled UP-node and link payload), and delete (DELETE /upi/v1/upNodesLinks/{nodeID}) operations. The defect is route-group-scoped: there is no inbound auth middleware on the UPI group at all, while a control comparison against the sibling nsmf-oam group on the same SMF instance shows OAM IS protected (no-token request returns 401 Unauthorized). So this is not a global config gap -- it is specifically that the UPI group was mounted without the auth middleware that the OAM group has. Details Validated against the SMF container in the official Docker compose lab. - Source repo…

Published by the source

8 May 2026, 23:02 UTC

Last modified by the source

8 Jun 2026, 20:12 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:23 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-3258-qmv8-frp3

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-44329

Advisory: free5GC's SMF UPI management interface lacks auth middleware; unauthenticated topology read/write requests reach handlers
IDs: CVE-2026-44329, GHSA-3258-qmv8-frp3
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-44329 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:23 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Critical (CVSS 10.0)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/free5gc/smf 1.4.3. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/free5gc/smf: affected < 1.4.3; fixed in 1.4.3

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/free5gc/smf: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/free5gc/smf.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-3258-qmv8-frp3 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-3258-qmv8-frp3 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/free5gc/smf >=0 <1.4.3)

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