{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2026-13735","assignerOrgId":"e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad","state":"PUBLISHED","assignerShortName":"zephyr","dateReserved":"2026-06-29T14:44:09.848Z","datePublished":"2026-08-28T20:38:50.695Z","dateUpdated":"2026-09-01T12:27:04.400Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"providerMetadata":{"orgId":"e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad","shortName":"zephyr","dateUpdated":"2026-08-28T20:38:50.695Z"},"title":"WireGuard keepalive transport-data messages accepted without Poly1305 authentication","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"Zephyr's WireGuard implementation in subsys/net/lib/wireguard/wg_crypto.c mishandled keepalive packets. In wg_process_data_message(), any type-4 transport-data message whose payload was exactly 16 bytes (an empty plaintext plus a bare Poly1305 tag, i.e. a keepalive) was accepted and returned immediately, before wg_decrypt_packet() was ever called. The Poly1305 authentication tag was therefore never verified; the only preceding gates were a cleartext receiver-index lookup (get_peer_keypair_for_index() on the attacker-supplied data_hdr->receiver) and a non-cryptographic keypair validity/expiry check.\n\nThe path is reachable entirely from the network: inbound UDP on the WireGuard port is dispatched by wg_input() to handle_transport_data() and then wg_process_data_message(). The 32-bit receiver index is transmitted in cleartext in WireGuard handshake and data messages, so an on-path observer learns it directly and an off-path attacker can brute-force it against the UDP port. Given an active receiving-valid session for that index, an attacker could send a 16-byte garbage payload and have it accepted without possessing the session key.\n\nOn acceptance the unauthenticated message caused the management layer to observe a spoofed NET_EVENT_VPN_CONNECTED signal (setting peer->first_valid and notifying any net_mgmt listener) and incremented the keepalive-RX statistic. The impact is limited to integrity of this status signal: no plaintext is decrypted or injected, no key is disclosed, and the early-return path did not update the peer endpoint or liveness timers, so there is no traffic-injection, session-takeover, or availability consequence.\n\nThe fix removes the pre-decrypt early return so a 16-byte payload flows through wg_decrypt_packet(), which verifies the Poly1305 tag over the empty plaintext, followed by the existing anti-replay check; only an authenticated, non-replayed message is then recognised as a keepalive. Forged keepalives now fail the tag check and are counted as decrypt failures."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"zephyrproject","product":"zephyr","collectionURL":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr","packageName":"zephyr","defaultStatus":"unaffected","programFiles":["subsys/net/lib/wireguard/wg_crypto.c"],"versions":[{"version":"4.4.0","status":"affected","versionType":"semver","lessThan":"4.4.2"}]}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/87c520a55f0f0e7cd4adf8780166e45eaad6d81c","name":"Fix commit","tags":["patch"]},{"url":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-xxrw-r78f-f6mx","name":"GHSA-xxrw-r78f-f6mx"}],"metrics":[{"format":"CVSS","cvssV3_1":{"version":"3.1","vectorString":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N","baseScore":3.7,"baseSeverity":"LOW"}}],"problemTypes":[{"descriptions":[{"lang":"en","description":"auth","cweId":"CWE-290","type":"CWE"}]}],"x_generator":{"engine":"cvelib 1.8.0"}},"adp":[{"metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"timestamp":"2026-09-01T12:26:54.427438Z","id":"CVE-2026-13735","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"no"},{"Technical Impact":"partial"}],"role":"CISA Coordinator","version":"2.0.3"}}}],"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","providerMetadata":{"orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","shortName":"CISA-ADP","dateUpdated":"2026-09-01T12:27:04.400Z"}}]}}