CVE-2026-52878: klever-io klever-go NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-52878 is a high (CVSS 7.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in klever-io klever-go. EPSS estimates a 0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40.9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 07-08-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 10-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Klever-Go is the Go implementation of the Klever blockchain protocol. Versions 1.7.14 through 1.7.17 are vulnerable to a nil-pointer panic triggered by a protobuf Transaction whose embedded RawData sub-message is omitted. This omission causes RawData to decode to nil. Every transaction gossiped on the Klever-Go P2P network is decoded and validated synchronously inside the libp2p pubsub topic-validator callback, where txVersionChecker.CheckTxVersion dereferences tx.RawData.Version with no nil check. Because the libp2p pubsub callback, the underlying go-libp2p-pubsub validation worker, and Klever's own network/p2p layer install no recover(), the panic propagates and crashes the entire node process. The attacker payload is a 3-byte protobuf message; no validator key, stake, funds, or on-chain account is required, and delivery aimed at enough of the BLS validator set can halt block production, resulting in a chain halt. This issue has been fixed in version 1.7.18.

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.