CVE-2026-23833
ESPHome vulnerable to denial-of-service via out-of-bounds check bypass in the API component
Description
### Summary An integer overflow in the API component's protobuf decoder allows denial-of-service attacks when API encryption is not used. ### Details The bounds check `ptr + field_length > end` in `components/api/proto.cpp` can overflow when a malicious client sends a large `field_length` value. This affects all ESPHome device platforms (ESP32, ESP8266, RP2040, LibreTiny). The overflow bypasses the out-of-bounds check, causing the device to read invalid memory and crash. When using the plaintext API protocol, this attack can be performed without authentication. When noise encryption is enabled, knowledge of the encryption key is required. ### Affected Versions ESPHome 2025.9.0 through 2025.12.6 ### Mitigation - Upgrade to ESPHome 2025.12.7 or later (or 2026.1.0b3 or later) - [Enable API encryption](https://esphome.io/components/api.html#configuration-variables) with a unique key per device - Follow the [Security Best Practices](https://esphome.io/guides/security_best_practices/) ### Severity Low - Users following [Security Best Practices](https://esphome.io/guides/security_best_practices/) with API encryption enabled are not affected without knowledge of the encryption key. ### Impact Denial-of-service. An attacker with network access to port 6053 can crash and reboot the device. ### Credits Thanks to [@Mat931](https://github.com/Mat931) for responsibly reporting this vulnerability.
How to fix CVE-2026-23833
To remediate CVE-2026-23833, upgrade the affected package to a fixed version below.
- —upgrade to 2025.12.7 or later
Is CVE-2026-23833 being exploited?
Low — EPSS is 0.1%, meaning exploitation activity has not been observed at scale.
Affected packages (1)
- >= 2025.9.0, < 2025.12.7
CVSS scores
| Source | Version | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| osv | CVSS 4.0 | — | CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |