CVE-2026-116785signalwire freeswitch heap-based buffer overflow
CVE-2026-116785 is a heap-based buffer overflow in signalwire freeswitch, rated critical (9.1 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: Critical, and reachable over the network without an account.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed
What it is
A buffer on the heap overflows and corrupts neighbouring data structures. Code writes past the end of a buffer, corrupting memory in ways an attacker can often turn into code execution.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, without an account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker crash the process, read memory, or in the worst case run code.
Is it being exploited?
There is no public report of exploitation yet. It can be exploited automatically, at scale.
What to do
- Upgrade signalwire freeswitch to 1.11.2 or later. The patch notes are linked below.
- Until it is patched, keep it off the internet or behind a VPN, allowlist or authenticating proxy.
Description from NVD
FreeSWITCH is a Software Defined Telecom Stack enabling the digital transformation from proprietary telecom switches to a software implementation that runs on any commodity hardware. Prior to 1.11.2, ws_read_frame() decoded a WebSocket frame's 64-bit extended payload length with a 32-bit byte swap and narrowed the result into a signed length. A value whose surviving low word became negative bypassed the signed size check and was reinterpreted as an enormous unsigned count, causing client bytes to overwrite memory beyond the 64 KiB receive buffer. Any client completing a /socket WebSocket upgrade on an enabled mod_xml_rpc endpoint reached the parser before HTTP authentication; both the module and WebSocket endpoint are disabled by default. The heap overwrite can corrupt connection pointers and crash FreeSWITCH, ending every concurrent session, although remote code execution has not been demonstrated. This issue is fixed in version 1.11.2.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Native code: operating systems, browsers and firmware. The flaw sits wherever native code reads untrusted data.
- Network appliances and media or file parsers. The flaw sits wherever native code reads untrusted data.
Trust boundaries in play
- Internet-facing entry points. No account is needed. Any instance reachable from outside your perimeter, through a load balancer, gateway, VPN or exposed admin port, is in scope.
- Wherever native code reads untrusted data. An attacker who crosses it can crash the process, read memory, or in the worst case run code.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does signalwire freeswitch run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.