CVE-2026-29642
Published: April 20, 2026· Updated: Apr 21, 2026
Official Description
A local attacker who can execute privileged CSR operations (or can induce firmware to do so) performs carefully crafted reads/writes to menvcfg (e.g., csrrs in M-mode). On affected XiangShan versions (commit aecf601e803bfd2371667a3fb60bfcd83c333027, 2024-11-19), these menvcfg accesses can unexpectedly set WPRI (reserved) bits in the status view (xstatus) to 1. RISC-V defines WPRI fields as "writes preserve values, reads ignore values," i.e., they must not be modified by software manipulating other fields, and menvcfg itself contains multiple WPRI fields.
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-29642 requires local access, meaning attackers must already have a foothold on the target system.
Exploitation requires low privileges, which limits the exposure to scenarios where an attacker has already gained initial access.
A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 7.8.
CVSS v3.1 Vector Breakdown
Exploit & PoC Resources
All References (4)
Quick Facts
Recommended Actions
- →Apply vendor patches immediately
- →Monitor CVE-2026-29642 in threat intel feeds
- →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts