CVE-2026-54736

Phalcon: Non-constant-time HMAC verification in `Encryption\Crypt::decrypt` (timing side-channel)

HIGH
8.2
CVSS Score
Published: July 10, 2026 at 09:02 PM UTC
Updated: October 25, 2026 at 03:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorCphalcon

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Severity
HIGH8.2
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Phalcon is a high-performance, full-stack PHP framework. Prior to 5.14.1, Phalcon\Encryption\Crypt::decrypt compares the attacker-supplied HMAC tag against the freshly computed HMAC using PHP/Zephir identity comparison, which lowers to a byte-wise comparison that returns early on the first differing byte. This observable timing discrepancy can allow an attacker to recover a valid tag byte-by-byte and attach it to a chosen IV and ciphertext so that decrypt() accepts tampered encrypted content as authentic. This issue is fixed in version 5.14.1.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 5.14.1
Affected range stops below 5.14.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.2HIGHGitHub_M
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-208CWE-347

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