Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-14296 · published 7 September 2026
CVE-2026-14296: Improper verification of cryptographic signature vulnerability
When using the Direct XIP update strategy, the main application image starts other cores (i.e. radio core), based on the currently active slot without additional verification. The MCUboot in the bare (upstream) configuration assumes that if there is at least a single slot for each image available, the system is bootable and continues the boot process. This may lead to a situation when MCUboot picks different slot for different images (i.e. (a) for the main application and (b) for the radio image), boots the main application (from slot (a)) that afterwards starts the radio image by providing an address of the unauthenticated slot ((a) instead of (b)).
Description
When using the Direct XIP update strategy, the main application image starts other cores (i.e. radio core), based on the currently active slot without additional verification. The MCUboot in the bare (upstream) configuration assumes that if there is at least a single slot for each image available, the system is bootable and continues the boot process. This may lead to a situation when MCUboot picks different slot for different images (i.e. (a) for the main application and (b) for the radio image), boots the main application (from slot (a)) that afterwards starts the radio image by providing an address of the unauthenticated slot ((a) instead of (b)).
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
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Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-14296), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.