{"id":"CVE-2026-13735","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"WireGuard keepalive transport-data messages accepted without Poly1305 authentication","description":"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.","publishedAt":"2026-08-28T20:38:50.695Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-01T12:27:04.400Z","severity":{"score":3.7,"label":"Low","version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N","source":"zephyr"},"assigner":"zephyr","products":["zephyrproject zephyr"],"affected":[{"vendor":"zephyrproject","product":"zephyr","packageName":"zephyr","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"4.4.0","status":"affected","lessThan":"4.4.2","versionType":"semver"}],"collectionURL":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr","programFiles":["subsys/net/lib/wireguard/wg_crypto.c"]}],"references":["https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/87c520a55f0f0e7cd4adf8780166e45eaad6d81c","https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-xxrw-r78f-f6mx"],"weaknesses":["CWE-290"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T20:11:00.674Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2026/13xxx/CVE-2026-13735.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2026-13735","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2026-08-28T20:38:50.695Z","dateUpdated":"2026-09-01T12:27:04.400Z","assignerShortName":"zephyr","assignerOrgId":"e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad","dateReserved":"2026-06-29T14:44:09.848Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"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","packageName":"zephyr","defaultStatus":"unaffected","versions":[{"version":"4.4.0","status":"affected","lessThan":"4.4.2","versionType":"semver"}],"collectionURL":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr","programFiles":["subsys/net/lib/wireguard/wg_crypto.c"]}],"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":[{"cweId":"CWE-290","lang":"en","description":"auth","type":"CWE"}]}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"zephyr","orgId":"e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad","dateUpdated":"2026-08-28T20:38:50.695Z"},"x_generator":{"engine":"cvelib 1.8.0"}},"adp":[{"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","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"}}}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CISA-ADP","orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","dateUpdated":"2026-09-01T12:27:04.400Z"}}]}}}