CVE-2026-127928 · Runtime
NO FIX YET
MCUboot's serial-recovery code for encrypted images leaves the plaintext AES image key and expanded key context in stack memory after returning. An attacker who can read device RAM through a debug port or retained RAM can recover the key and decrypt the firmware image it protects.
first public Nov 12, 2026 · 1 source
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Only builds of MCUboot that combine encrypted images (MCUBOOT_ENC_IMAGES, Zephyr CONFIG_BOOT_ENCRYPT_IMAGE) with serial recovery are exposed. The flaw needs a separate memory-read capability, such as a debug port or retained RAM, so devices with locked debug access and no retained RAM are at lower risk. The sources do not state affected version ranges.
Not affected if debug-locked, encrypted-images-disabled, serial-recovery-disabled
Who cares embedded, firmware, mcuboot, zephyr
MCUBOOT_ENC_IMAGES (or Zephyr CONFIG_BOOT_ENCRYPT_IMAGE) together with serial recovery.boot/boot_serial/src/boot_serial_encryption.c.No fix yet, per the sources.
In MCUboot's serial-recovery encrypted-image support (boot/boot_serial/src/boot_serial_encryption.c), decrypt_image_inplace() and boot_image_validate_encrypted() each keep a stack-local struct boot_status. boot_enc_load() writes the plaintext per-image AES key into its enckey[] field. Neither function cleared this structure before returning. In addition, a decrypt failure inside the per-sector loop of decrypt_image_inplace() returned early and skipped the total_out: cleanup, which left the expanded AES key context (enc_data) on the stack as well. The error paths of boot_image_validate_encrypted() similarly skipped boot_enc_zeroize().
The affected code is built when encrypted images (MCUBOOT_ENC_IMAGES, Zephyr CONFIG_BOOT_ENCRYPT_IMAGE) are combined with serial recovery. It runs when an encrypted image is uploaded to the primary slot over the recovery protocol, and when the image list or state is queried while an encrypted image is in the secondary slot. After these functions return, the image's AES content key remains in dead stack memory. An attacker who can later read device RAM, for example through a debug port or retained RAM, can recover it.
This weakens the confidentiality of image-encryption keys within the bootloader trust boundary. A recovered key exposes the plaintext of the encrypted firmware image it protects. The device's long-term private decryption key is not exposed. No remote or recovery-protocol channel that returns this memory is known, so exploitation requires a separate memory-read capability.
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