CVE-2025-53627

Meshtastic firmware allows forged DMs with no PKC to show up as encrypted

Published Dec 29, 2025 CVSS 3.1 · 5.3 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Meshtastic is an open source mesh networking solution. The Meshtastic firmware (starting from version 2.5) introduces asymmetric encryption (PKI) for direct messages, but when the `pki_encrypted` flag is missing, the firmware silently falls back to legacy AES-256-CTR channel encryption. This was an intentional decision to maintain backwards compatibility. However, the end-user applications, like Web app, iOS/Android app, and applications built on top of Meshtastic using the SDK, did not have a way to differentiate between end-to-end encrypted DMs and the legacy DMs. This creates a downgrade attack path where adversaries who know a shared channel key can craft and inject spoofed direct messages that are displayed as if they were PKC encrypted. Users are not given any feedback of whether a direct message was decrypted with PKI or with legacy symmetric encryption, undermining the expected security guarantees of the PKI rollout. Version 2.7.15 fixes this issue.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Meshtastic meshtastic Firmware
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:meshtastic:meshtastic_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Meshtastic meshtastic Firmware
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Google
Google android
Meshtastic
Meshtastic firmware
Vendors & Products Google
Google android
Meshtastic
Meshtastic firmware
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Title Forged DMs with no PKC show up as encrypted Meshtastic firmware allows forged DMs with no PKC to show up as encrypted
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Meshtastic is an open source mesh networking solution. The Meshtastic firmware (starting from version 2.5) introduces asymmetric encryption (PKI) for direct messages, but when the `pki_encrypted` flag is missing, the firmware silently falls back to legacy AES-256-CTR channel encryption. This was an intentional decision to maintain backwards compatibility. However, the end-user applications, like Web app, iOS/Android app, and applications built on top of Meshtastic using the SDK, did not have a way to differentiate between end-to-end encrypted DMs and the legacy DMs. This creates a downgrade attack path where adversaries who know a shared channel key can craft and inject spoofed direct messages that are displayed as if they were PKC encrypted. Users are not given any feedback of whether a direct message was decrypted with PKI or with legacy symmetric encryption, undermining the expected security guarantees of the PKI rollout. Version 2.7.15 fixes this issue.
Title Forged DMs with no PKC show up as encrypted
Weaknesses CWE-1287
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Dec 29, 2025, 4:52 PM
Reserved
Jul 7, 2025, 2:20 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Dec 29, 2025, 5:15 PM
Modified
Oct 7, 2026, 12:10 PM