Broker crash via concurrent MQTT message use-after-free
Published Mar 4, 2026 · Updated Mar 4, 2026
Use-after-free in NanoMQ 0.24.6 allows remote attackers to crash the broker through concurrent MQTT connection and messaging churn. The TCP transport send callback releases an MQTT message that concurrent session churn has already freed, corrupting the heap and causing an invalid-pointer abort. An MQTT connection and valid control packets are sufficient under default configuration, but reliable triggering requires high-frequency traffic and timing-dependent concurrency.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in NanoMQ 0.24.6 allows remote attackers to crash the broker through concurrent MQTT connection and messaging churn. The TCP transport send callback releases an MQTT message that concurrent session churn has already freed, corrupting the heap and causing an invalid-pointer abort. An MQTT connection and valid control packets are sufficient under default configuration, but reliable triggering requires high-frequency traffic and timing-dependent concurrency.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-22040
- Published
- Mar 4, 2026
- Updated
- Mar 4, 2026
- Vendor
- EMQ Technologies
- Product
- NanoMQ
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 4, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 4, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion== 0.24.6
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
- replay_uaf.pyfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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