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NVD / CVE Program· CNA GitHub_M

CVE-2026-52732: ZEBRA: Mempool transaction admission denial via single-peer inbound queue saturation

MediumCVSS 5.3 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 21/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.50% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
  • Fixed version: ZcashFoundation zebra 4.5.0.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to ZcashFoundation zebra 4.5.0 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

ZEBRA is a Zcash node written entirely in Rust. Prior to 4.5.0, one unauthenticated P2P peer can monopolize all 25 MAX_INBOUND_CONCURRENCY slots in Zebra's inbound mempool download and verification pipeline. In zebrad/src/components/mempool/downloads.rs, the bounded queue was shared globally without per-peer accounting, while peer identity was not carried through Gossip and FullQueue responses were mapped to Response::Nil instead of reaching overload disconnection handling. An attacker can advertise fake transaction identifiers and remain silent so each task holds a slot until TRANSACTION_DOWNLOAD_TIMEOUT, then periodically refill the queue as slots expire. While saturated, honest peer transactions and local sendrawtransaction requests are rejected with MempoolError::FullQueue, although block validation and synchronization continue. This issue is fixed in version 4.5.0.

Published
Aug 18, 2026
Updated
Oct 22, 2026
EPSS
0.5% · 43th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

21

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
21 / 40 · 5.3 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.5%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
proof of concept
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
—
CNA · GitHub_M
5.3
NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2026-52732

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

—

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • ZcashFoundation zebra

    • < 4.5.0affected

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
crates.iozebradbefore 4.5.04.5.0

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-52735ZEBRA: Consensus divergence via P2SH sigop undercount in pure-Rust disabled-opcode parser
    37Monitor
  • CVE-2026-54496Missing copy constraint in halo2_gadgets variable-base scalar multiplication allows under-constrained base, breaking Orchard Action circuit soundness
    37Monitor
  • CVE-2026-123560Zebra before 7.0.0 Sync Denial of Service via Forged Checkpoint Block Body
    34Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-44499May 8, 2026 · ZEBRA: Permanent Block Discovery Halt via Gossip Queue Saturation and Syncer Poisoning
    34Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-52731Aug 18, 2026 · ZEBRA: Full node denial of service via non-ASCII LongPollId in getblocktemplate
    26Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-52733Aug 18, 2026 · ZEBRA: Persistent on-disk corruption of Sapling/Orchard subtree roots after chain fork via pop_tip
    26Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
ZcashFoundation zebra4.5.0 · descriptionVendor (CNA)
crates.io:zebrad4.5.0Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

  • CVE-2026-44499102 days apartZEBRA: Permanent Block Discovery Halt via Gossip Queue Saturation and Syncer Poisoning
    34Monitor
  • CVE-2026-10442945 days apartZebra before 6.0.0-rc.0 Per-Peer Mempool Admission Bypass via P2P tx Messages
    27Monitor
  • CVE-2026-10443645 days apartZebra before 4.5.0 CPU Amplification via Uncapped getblocks/getheaders Locator Length
    25Monitor

Not on record for this CVE: researcher credit · public bounty program.

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
low · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
Low

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

nvd-secondary

References

All records