Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-14296 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-14296 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-14296?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 7.5, published 7 September 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Nordic Semiconductor nRF Bootloader.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-14296?
- No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
- How is CVE-2026-14296 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in device firmware.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-14296?
- Check whether you run Nordic Semiconductor nRF Bootloader. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
The vulnerability exists in MCUboot's Direct XIP update strategy implementation. When MCUboot determines that the system is bootable if at least one slot exists per image, it can select different slots for the main application and radio core firmware. The main application then starts the radio core using the address of the slot chosen by MCUboot, but without verifying that the radio image in that slot is authenticated. An attacker who can modify firmware images in the unauthenticated slot can cause execution of malicious code on the radio core. The attack requires local or physical access to modify firmware storage, but no user interaction or authentication is needed once the malicious image is in place.
Affected products
- Nordic Semiconductor nRF Bootloader
Timeline
- 2026-09-07: disclosed