# CVE-2026-54736

## Summary

- **CVE ID:** CVE-2026-54736
- **Severity:** HIGH
- **CVSS Score:** 8.2 (CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N)
- **CWE:** CWE-208, CWE-347
- **Published:** Jul 10, 2026
- **Last Modified:** Jul 13, 2026

## 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 Products

- phalcon — cphalcon (< 5.14.1)

## References

- [CNA](https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/security/advisories/GHSA-8jqh-95g6-7jpj)
- [CNA](https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/issues/17090)
- [CNA](https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/pull/17091)
- [CNA](https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/commit/ad53ab1b2e7ec59b3af92b0b37b8aaa099011137)
- [CNA](https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon/releases/tag/v5.14.1)

## Exploitation Prediction (EPSS)

- **EPSS Score:** 0.18%
- **EPSS Percentile:** 7.7

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_Exported from OnDuty AI Vulnerability Intelligence on 2026-09-10._