Netgate pfSense CE up to 2.9.0 Login Banner strongswan.conf login_banner code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as very critical has been reported in Netgate pfSense CE up to 2.9.0. This affects an unknown function of the file strongswan.conf of the component Login Banner. Performing a manipulation of the argument login_banner results in code injection. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-111223. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as very critical, was found in Netgate pfSense CE up to 2.9.0. This affects an unknown code of the file strongswan.conf of the component Login Banner. The manipulation of the argument login_banner with an unknown input leads to a code injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Netgate pfSense CE 2.7.0 through 2.9.0 contains a configuration injection vulnerability that allows authenticated users with IPsec Mobile privileges to execute commands as root via the login_banner field. Attackers can submit a single-line banner containing '}' to escape the unquoted strongswan.conf attr value and define charon.start-scripts entries that charon executes as root on restart.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-111223 since 10/15/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. Additional levels of successful authentication are needed for exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/15/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1059 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

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

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Productinfo

Type

• Firewall Software

Vendor

• Netgate

Name

• pfSense CE

Version

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 2.2
• 2.3
• 2.4
• 2.5
• 2.6
• 2.7
• 2.8
• 2.9.0

License

• open-source

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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