VDB-399524 · CVE-2026-18796 · EUVD-2026-72300

Nordic Semiconductor ASA nRF5340 risky encryption

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
2.5	$0-$5k	1.91

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Nordic Semiconductor ASA nRF5340. It has been declared as problematic. This issue affects some unknown processing. Such manipulation leads to risky encryption. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-18796. An attack has to be approached locally. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Nordic Semiconductor ASA nRF5340 (version now known) and classified as problematic. Affected by this issue is some unknown processing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a risky encryption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-327. The product uses a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm or protocol. Impacted is confidentiality. CVE summarizes:

Any application that uses external QSPI flash for encrypted XIP on nRF5340 and relies on that encryption for confidentiality and/or integrity of the externally stored code. No specific nRF Connect SDK version is the root cause; the weakness is in the on-the-fly decryption scheme.

The advisory is shared for download at docs.nordicsemi.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-18796 since 08/04/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack needs to be approached locally. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1600.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2026-72300). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

Nordic Semiconductor ASA

Name

nRF5340

CPE 2.3info

🔒

CPE 2.2info

🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CNA CVSS-B Score: 🔒
CNA CVSS-BT Score: 🔒
CNA Vector: 🔒

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 2.5
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 2.5

VulDB Base Score: 2.5
VulDB Temp Score: 2.5
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Risky encryption
CWE: CWE-327 / CWE-310
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Yes
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: no mitigation known
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Timelineinfo

08/04/2026 CVE reserved
09/07/2026 +34 days Advisory disclosed
09/07/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
09/07/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: docs.nordicsemi.com
Status: Not defined

CVE: CVE-2026-18796 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-18796
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-399524
EUVD: 🔒

Entryinfo

Created: 09/07/2026 10:53
Updated: 09/07/2026 12:30
Changes: 09/07/2026 10:53 (62), 09/07/2026 12:30 (1)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103