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.
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Fixes

Solution

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Workaround

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History

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

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


Mon, 29 Dec 2025 16:45:00 +0000

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

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 16:30:00 +0000

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'}


Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2025-12-29T16:52:03.331Z

Reserved: 2025-07-07T14:20:38.388Z

Link: CVE-2025-53627

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2025-12-29T16:51:59.299Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2025-12-29T17:15:45.287

Modified: 2025-12-29T17:15:45.287

Link: CVE-2025-53627

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses