Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2023-36998 is a high-severity flaw in NextEPC MME up to version 1.0.1. A nearby cellular user connected through a managed base station could trigger a stack overflow before LTE core authentication. For affected mobile-core deployments, impact may include service disruption and unauthorized memory corruption.
Executive priority
Treat this as urgent for any organization running NextEPC MME in LTE infrastructure. The business risk is highest where MME outages or compromise could disrupt cellular service, private LTE operations, or security research networks.
Technical view
The flaw is a CWE-121 stack-based buffer overflow in NextEPC MME Emergency Number List decoding. An oversized Emergency Number List in a NAS message can overwrite stack memory with attacker-controlled bytes. The CVE states it is fixed in commit a8492c9c5bc0a66c6999cb5a263545b32a4109df.
Likely exposure
Exposure appears limited to organizations operating NextEPC MME versions at or below 1.0.1 in LTE core environments. The source bundle does not identify broader products, downstream packages, managed services, or distributions as affected.
Exploitation context
The source states exploitation requires a cellphone connection to any base station managed by the vulnerable MME and does not require LTE core authentication. CISA KEV status is false, and the provided sources do not confirm active exploitation.
Researcher notes
Evidence is concise but specific: affected component, attack precondition, vulnerable parser, impact class, and fixing commit are named. The bundle does not provide proof of exploitation, exploit maturity, detailed patch notes, or affected downstream distributions.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade NextEPC MME to a build containing commit a8492c9c5bc0a66c6999cb5a263545b32a4109df or later.
- Check upstream or vendor guidance for release packaging and operational mitigations.
- Prioritize affected LTE core lab, private-network, and production MME instances.
- Limit MME exposure to expected RAN/base-station infrastructure where operationally feasible.
- Monitor MME crashes or abnormal NAS-message handling until patched.
Validation and detection
- Inventory all NextEPC MME deployments and record their exact version or commit.
- Confirm no deployed MME is at or below version 1.0.1 without the fixed commit.
- Review build provenance to verify inclusion of the Emergency Number List decoder fix.
- Check logs for unexplained MME crashes or NAS parsing faults.
- Validate remediation first in a controlled LTE core test environment.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-121: Exact CWE lookup
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Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2023-36998 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 8.9 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H2.36CISA-ADPVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
8.9HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://cellularsecurity.org/ransackedCVE reference, mitre
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Stack-based Buffer Overflow
Stack-based Buffer Overflow represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.