CVE-2026-114597 in EPICS Base
Summary
by MITRE • 10/27/2026
In EPICS Base release 7.0.10 and prior, an insufficient validation of element or length values in a network message can cause the application to read beyond the bounds of an allocated buffer. This may lead to denial of service and could expose adjacent memory contents.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/27/2026
The vulnerability identified in EPICS Base versions 7.0.10 and prior represents a critical security flaw rooted in insufficient input validation within the network message processing subsystem. As a widely used control system framework for scientific instruments, EPICS relies heavily on robust handling of data structures transmitted over networks to ensure stable operation across distributed systems. The specific technical deficiency lies in the application's failure to adequately verify element counts or length parameters contained within incoming network messages before utilizing them to determine memory allocation sizes or buffer traversal limits. When a malicious actor constructs a specially crafted packet with exaggerated length values, the software proceeds to allocate buffers based on these untrusted inputs without performing rigorous boundary checks against actual available data or predefined safe thresholds.
This lack of validation directly leads to an out-of-bounds read condition, which is formally categorized under CWE-126: Buffer Over-read in industry standard classification systems. The operational mechanism involves the application reading memory locations that lie beyond the allocated buffer boundaries. In a typical execution flow, the software expects data within specific limits but instead accesses adjacent memory regions due to the unchecked length parameter. This behavior violates fundamental principles of safe memory management and creates a scenario where the integrity of the process's memory space is compromised. The flaw does not necessarily allow for immediate code execution in all contexts, as it primarily manifests as an information disclosure vector rather than a direct remote code execution path, although the latter cannot be entirely ruled out depending on the specific compiler optimizations and runtime environment configurations.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data corruption or application crashes. The primary consequence is a denial of service, where the process may terminate unexpectedly due to segmentation faults or access violations triggered by reading invalid memory addresses. This disrupts critical monitoring and control operations in facilities relying on EPICS for infrastructure management. More critically, the ability to expose adjacent memory contents poses a severe risk of information disclosure. An attacker could potentially extract sensitive data such as cryptographic keys, internal application states, user credentials, or other proprietary information stored in neighboring memory blocks. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1005: Data from Local System, where adversaries seek to harvest valuable data directly from the compromised host through memory scraping techniques facilitated by this buffer over-read flaw.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require both immediate patching and long-term architectural improvements. The most effective remediation is upgrading EPICS Base to version 7.0.11 or later, where developers have implemented stricter validation routines that verify element counts and length values against expected bounds before processing network messages. For environments unable to upgrade immediately, deploying a web application firewall or intrusion detection system capable of inspecting deep packet payloads may help filter out malformed requests with excessively large length fields. Additionally, implementing memory protection mechanisms such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) can mitigate the exploitation potential by making it more difficult for attackers to predict memory layouts or execute code in non-executable regions. Developers should also adopt secure coding practices that emphasize input validation at all trust boundaries, ensuring that any data received from external sources is rigorously checked against predefined constraints before being used in memory operations.