important1 finding, 16 signals6 min read

Low-cost rogue 5G cells can silently track idle subscribers and force downgrades or modem lockups.

The cellular attack works without user action when a target is idle or inactive and within range of an attacker with SDR transmission capability.

Priority findings1
§
High
Mobile
Confirmed

A low-cost rogue 5G cell can silently track subscribers, force downgrades and freeze modems on commercial networks.

Idle and inactive phones can camp on the transmitter automatically, before authentication and without warning.

Affects

Commercial 5G SA and NSA networks and ordinary consumer phones or cellular modems operating within a rogue base station's coverage.

What it enables

User-invisible subscriber tracking, radio-generation downgrade and persistent modem denial of service

Observe the target operator's MCC, MNC, frequency plan and reselection prioritiesBroadcast a stronger or higher-priority cell using open-source stacks and inexpensive SDR hardwareThe idle device autonomously camps on the rogue cell without a warning or user interactionRequest permanent, concealed or temporary subscriber identifiers and correlate successive GUTIsSend unauthenticated Registration Reject causes to force LTE/UMTS downgrade, an infinite retry loop or a frozen modem state requiring a manual radio reset
Why this matters

A low-cost rogue 5G cell can silently track subscribers, force radio-generation downgrades and persistently disrupt modems on commercial networks. Researchers demonstrated the attack against commercial networks and off-the-shelf devices using open-source cellular stacks and inexpensive SDR hardware.

Detail and 2 sources
Required access

Cellular radio range with SDR transmission capability while the target device is in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE

Affected versions

Galaxy Z Flip3 / Snapdragon X60, Oppo Find X5 Lite / Dimensity 900, iPhone 13 Pro / Snapdragon X60 as identified by the paper, Google Pixel 8 / Exynos 5300i, Samsung Galaxy S23 / Snapdragon X70, Quectel RM520N-GL / Snapdragon X62, Three anonymized Tier-1 operators across commercial 5G SA and NSA deployments, 3GPP Release 15 and 16 behavior tested across Galaxy Z Flip3, Oppo Find X5 Lite, iPhone 13 Pro, Pixel 8, Galaxy S23, and Quectel RM520N-GL, Galaxy S23 with Snapdragon X70 tested for unauthenticated reject handling on two commercial 5G SA operators

Proof of concept

Demonstrated by the researcher

The attacker observes the operator identifiers, spectrum and reselection priorities, then broadcasts a stronger or higher-priority cell with an open-source stack and inexpensive SDR hardware. A phone in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE camps on it without warning or interaction.

The rogue cell can request permanent, concealed or temporary subscriber identifiers and correlate successive GUTIs. Unauthenticated Registration Reject causes can then force an LTE or UMTS downgrade, trap the modem in a retry loop or leave it frozen until the user manually resets its radio state.

Evidence
Paper demonstrates the technique against commercial networks and COTS devicesRecent first publication on 2026-09-21User interaction and warning absence are explicitly measuredTracking and reject-induced modem effects are experimentally characterized
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Signals16
important · Remote code execution

Patch analysis demonstrates two independent pre-authentication routes into VMware vCenter.

Affects

VMware vCenter Server Appliance, the virtualization-management control plane deployed in vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation environments.

One route uses a crafted SRP value to authenticate to vmdir as an existing identity without its password. The other uses traversal in syslog fields for arbitrary file write; researchers reached code execution but withheld the final sink. Broadcom has fixed builds, while pre-fix image acceptance and revocation completeness remain unknown.

Detail and 2 sources
important · Edge devices

Public SAPMAP code now automates S4GET's pre-authentication takeover path across SAP application-server clusters.

Affects

SAP NetWeaver Message Server and Gateway infrastructure used by SAP S/4HANA, S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, ABAP Platform, and other ABAP-based systems on affected kernel lines.

From Message Server port 36NN, a crafted registration makes the attacker's IP trusted across the cluster; SAP Gateway then accepts external-program invocation from that address and executes as the SAP operating-system account. A patch is available.

Detail and 3 sources
important · Remote code execution

An OpenStack tenant can turn Octavia load-balancer fields into root execution on provider-managed amphorae.

Affects

OpenStack Octavia, the load-balancer service used by private and public clouds; affected deployments use provider-managed Amphora HAProxy appliances.

On Amphora-backed load balancers, control characters in tenant-controlled cipher or redirect fields inject HAProxy directives that execute as root. That reaches other tenants' TLS keys, the heartbeat key and the control-plane network. OpenStack has published a patch.

Detail and 2 sources
important · Wi-Fi

An adjacent attacker can hijack Cisco ISE BYOD onboarding and enter a protected 802.1X network.

Affects

Cisco Identity Services Engine, an enterprise network-access-control and BYOD onboarding server deployed as an appliance or virtual machine.

The attacker must be in Wi-Fi range while a legitimate user is onboarding. Weak authentication during portal redirection lets the attacker spoof that user and inherit the session. Cisco has fixed releases, although previously built affected images remain accepted.

Detail and 1 source
important · Remote code execution

A crafted HEIF can execute commands in a libheif process that decodes and re-encodes it.

Affects

libheif, a cross-platform HEIF/AVIF decoding and encoding library used by image-processing services and desktop applications.

A shallow-copied itai timestamp pointer produces a controllable double free during transcoding. Researchers used it for tcache poisoning, overwrote a GOT entry and invoked system() against version 1.23.4. A fix is announced, but no unattended mail, messaging, thumbnail or public-upload route to the required re-encode path has been shown.

Detail and 3 sources
Chain to watch
A crafted itai HEIF reaches a consumer that decodes and re-encodes itThe shallow-copied timestamp is freed twiceAllocator manipulation reaches command executionNo unattended mail, messaging, thumbnailing or public-upload consumer has been shown to invoke the required decode-to-encode path automatically.
Unverified chainRun the published attacker-file reproducer through image-upload, optimization, thumbnail and attachment pipelines and trace whether each backend calls libheif's encode path after decoding.
important · Privilege escalation

An unauthenticated Meta Box frontend-form caller can rewrite page content and create a WordPress administrator.

Affects

Meta Box AIO and the standalone Meta Box Frontend Submission and Meta Box User Profile extensions for WordPress sites.

On sites exposing the affected optional components, an attacker-selected object ID reaches form processing without the render-time authorization check. The attacker can replace page content with a registration shortcode that selects the administrator role and automatic login. Meta Box AIO is fixed, but fixed standalone-extension versions were not established.

Detail and 3 sources
important · Privilege escalation

A pod creator can make CRI-O restore a checkpoint with privileges forbidden by the destination pod policy.

Affects

CRI-O, a Linux container runtime used by Kubernetes and OpenShift nodes.

Where checkpoint restore and CRIU are enabled, saved credentials, capabilities, no_new_privs and seccomp state can replace the requested securityContext. The restored process can therefore start as root with full capabilities and no seccomp. A fix is announced, but pre-fix checkpoint images remain accepted.

Detail and 2 sources
important · Zero-click

getID3 1.9.26 still contains the PHP 7.x XXE path its advisory says it fixed.

Affects

getID3, a PHP audio/video metadata library embedded in web applications and vendored in WordPress core.

If XML-bearing media reaches XML2array(), failure to disable external entities is suppressed and parsing continues, permitting local-file reads or SSRF. We still do not have a demonstrated WordPress delivery path.

Detail and 4 sources
Chain to watch
XML-bearing media reaches getID3 XML2array() under PHP 7.xEntity loading remains enabled after a suppressed failureXML parsing resolves a local-file or network entityA working path through WordPress core has not been demonstrated; upload permissions and handler reachability remain unresolved.
Unverified chainOn PHP 7.x WordPress with the byte-identical vendored file, upload a controlled WAV iXML fixture as each role with upload_files and instrument the RIFF parser and outbound entity resolution.
important · Privilege escalation

New exploitation reports turn Veeam Agent's readable elevated-session identifier into a standard-user-to-SYSTEM path.

Affects

Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, endpoint-backup software installed on Windows workstations and servers.

A local standard user can read an elevated session UID from the Veeam service log, reuse it through the gRPC named pipe and submit a command executed as SYSTEM because the UID is not bound to its original user or connection. A fixed build exists, but affected end-of-life systems remain in scope.

Detail and 3 sources
important · Bluetooth

A connected Bluetooth peer can make Linux L2CAP read beyond its logical packet boundary.

Affects

Linux kernel Bluetooth hosts with L2CAP channels using Enhanced Retransmission or streaming mode.

A short ERTM or streaming frame reaches missing minimum-length checks before the control field or optional FCS is read. Pairing requirements depend on the exposed service, and no public stock-host reproduction establishes a crash, disclosure or other observable consequence.

Detail and 2 sources
Chain to watch
Establish an ERTM or streaming-mode L2CAP channelSend a frame shorter than the negotiated control-field and FCS requirementsLinux reads beyond the logical skb boundaryNo public reproduction establishes a crash, information disclosure or other attacker-observable consequence on a stock host.
Unverified chainReplay truncated ERTM and streaming frames through a real controller against KASAN and hardened distribution kernels, recording whether the values affect parsing, disclosure or availability.
important · Mobile

Knowing a ZTE SmartLife email address is enough for demonstrated account takeover.

Affects

ZTE SmartLife Android and iOS clients and their internet-facing cloud account backend for ZTE smart-home devices.

Recoverable client secrets enable signed requests, an oracle returns the backend account ID, and the reset endpoint accepts a new password without a verified reset transaction. The researcher reproduced password replacement and login against controlled accounts. A fix is published, but it was not reviewed for this brief, so this cannot lead.

Detail and 4 sources
important · Firmware

CISA now confirms exploitation of the unauthenticated Zyxel GS1900 CGI stack overflow.

Affects

Zyxel GS1900-series smart managed Ethernet switches running embedded switch firmware.

The documented boundary is LAN access to the management service, where a crafted HTTP request triggers the overflow. We do not know the incidents' initial network position, whether attackers obtained controlled command execution or the resulting privilege. Zyxel's fix was not reviewed for this brief, so this cannot lead.

Detail and 2 sources
Chain to watch
Reach the GS1900 CGI management service without credentialsSend a crafted request that triggers the stack overflowExploit the memory corruption in an outcome not yet publicly characterizedPublic evidence does not establish controlled command execution, its privilege context or whether incidents began from internet-exposed management.
Unverified chainObtain incident-response evidence describing the initial network position and exploited outcome, or reproduce a benign command on stock firmware and record the CGI process UID.
important · Firmware

Unauthenticated requests can turn Lantronix out-of-band controllers into code-execution footholds.

Affects

Lantronix SLC 9000, SLC 8000, EMG 8500 and EMG 7500 autonomous out-of-band console-management appliances for serial-connected infrastructure.

Authentication bypass or predictable session tokens reach arbitrary-write functionality that the vendor says leads to code execution. The portal's default bind interface, the execution UID and the exact capability against attached serial devices remain unknown. The published fixes were not reviewed for this brief, so this cannot lead.

Detail and 3 sources
Chain to watch
Reach the web management portal without credentialsBypass authentication or derive a valid session tokenWrite attacker-controlled data to security-relevant filesystem locationsObtain code execution on the controllerThe execution UID and exact capability against downstream serial-connected devices are not published.
Unverified chainRun a benign identity command through the affected upload path on stock firmware, record the payload UID, and separately demonstrate a harmless command against an attached lab serial target.
important · Firmware

Unauthenticated Lantronix WebSSH and WebTelnet clients can pivot into protected management networks.

Affects

Lantronix SLC 9000, SLC 8000, EMG 8500 and EMG 7500 autonomous out-of-band console-management appliances.

A caller who can reach either listener can select a destination and make the controller originate an SSH or Telnet connection into networks unavailable from the caller's position. The default listener interface is not stated, and the published fixes were not reviewed for this brief, so this cannot lead.

Detail and 2 sources
important · Physical access

A malicious USB peripheral can panic Zephyr's experimental host stack during enumeration.

Affects

Zephyr RTOS devices built with the experimental USB host stack enabled.

A device-controlled configuration descriptor can fail validation after its buffer is freed, leaving cleanup to free the dangling pointer again. The documented outcome is a kernel panic in an experimental, disabled-by-default stack with a dedicated heap. The published fix was not reviewed for this brief, so this cannot lead.

Detail and 1 source
important · Mobile

An iOS WebKit page can make a geolocation prompt name one origin while another receives the location.

Affects

WebKit geolocation permission UI in WKWebView and the built-in iOS geolocation provider.

A controlled page requests geolocation and starts a cross-origin navigation while its document remains active. WebKit derives the prompt's displayed origin from the provisional destination rather than the requesting document.

Detail and 2 sources

If the user trusts that label and grants permission, the original document receives the result. The upstream commit documents the condition and adds regression tests, but the supplied evidence does not establish a public exploit or settle patch status.

Also noted0

No additional findings today.

What was checked · 2 quiet
Boot chain & TPMQuiet

No new signed-component revocation, bootloader primitive or recently demonstrated boot-chain bypass survived review.

ResearchQuiet

Commercial rogue-cell attacks, two demonstrated vCenter entry paths and the Octavia tenant escape changed the research surface.

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fullchain.sh follows the day’s disclosures from bug to shell — what each one enables, what it links to, and where the fix left the primitive in place.

Every finding here carries a source that was checked before it published. If something is wrong, write to admin@fullchain.sh — corrections are published on the day they affect.

Tuesday, September 22, 2026