Out-of-bounds Read in Nimiq Core-Rs-Albatross
CVE-2026-54542
Nimiq is a Rust implementation of the Nimiq Proof-of-Stake protocol based on the Albatross consensus algorithm. Prior to 1.6.0, a malicious state-sync peer can crash a syncing node by sending a crafted TrieChunk whose proof contains a TrieNodeChild suffix that is individually valid but exceeds the 63-byte KeyNibbles backing array when combined with the parent key. KeyNibbles::Add in primitives/src/key_nibbles.rs performs the combined slice operation without checking the total length, and the input reaches put_chunk, TrieNodeChild::key, and TrieNodeChild::is_stump before proof.verify, so the attacker does not need a valid cryptographic proof. Exploitation requires the attacker to be selected as the victim's sync peer during state sync. The resulting out-of-bounds panic is transient because the node restarts and resynchronizes. This issue is fixed in version 1.6.0.
Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 3.7 (Low). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.004 (38.5th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 39th percentile — 38.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Nimiq Core-Rs-Albatross — versions < 1.6.0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-54542?
- CVE-2026-54542 is a low-severity vulnerability in Nimiq Core-Rs-Albatross, classified under Out-of-bounds Read. CVSS score: 3.7/10. Published 2026-09-14.
- How severe is CVE-2026-54542?
- Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.7 out of 10.