CVE-2026-86713: px4 px4-autopilot Use After Free

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-86713 is a high (CVSS 7.1) Use After Free vulnerability in px4 px4-autopilot. EPSS estimates a 0.38% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 30.9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 08-09-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 08-09-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

PX4 Autopilot through 1.17.0 contains a use-after-free vulnerability in the load_mon module's stop path where exit_and_cleanup() deletes the LoadMon object and frees the performance counter before perf_end() attempts to access it. Attackers can trigger this vulnerability by issuing the load_mon stop command from any PXH or MAVLink shell, causing reads and writes through freed memory that corrupt heap objects and destabilize the flight stack.

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.