CVE-2026-52737
Prior to 4.5.0, a malicious unauthenticated P2P peer can answer Zebra's outbound getblocks or FindBlocks request with a small two-hash inventory and then serve a syntactically valid block whose coinbase height is far above the local chain tip.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.20%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
ZEBRA is a Zcash node written entirely in Rust. Prior to 4.5.0, a malicious unauthenticated P2P peer can answer Zebra's outbound getblocks or FindBlocks request with a small two-hash inventory and then serve a syntactically valid block whose coinbase height is far above the local chain tip. In zebrad/src/components/sync/downloads.rs, BlockDownloadVerifyError::AboveLookaheadHeightLimit originally carried only the block height and hash, so handle_block_response could not attribute the failure to the advertising peer. The error then reached the restart-worthy default path in zebrad/src/components/sync.rs, cancelling all in-flight downloads from honest peers and imposing a 67-second sync restart delay on mainnet. Because the peer was neither scored nor disconnected, the peer could repeat the cycle indefinitely with minimal bandwidth and significantly degrade synchronization without corrupting state. This issue is fixed in version 4.5.0.
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- EPSS
- 0.20% probability · 10th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-345
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/commit/1440b43ca7df59aca948090d45117557b217a6cd
- https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/commit/bc64dfe45746a86d14546a0a5a766387dd5a2942
- https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/pull/10647
- https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/releases/tag/v4.5.0
- https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra/security/advisories/GHSA-gvjc-3w7c-92jx
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.