# CVE-2026-16769: RS9116W/SiWx917 plaintext pause encryption request causes DOS

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in Silicon Labs RS9116W/SiWx917 modules by sending an unencrypted pause encryption request.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:A/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 8 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-28qg-4c8p-cqvx

## What is CVE-2026-16769?

CVE-2026-16769 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in silabs.com WiseCnnect, published on 8 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An unencrypted 'pause encryption request' message causes a denial of service in the in the RS9116W/SiWx917. See vulnerability B-E10 in the related paper below.

Weakness: CWE-440 (Expected Behavior Violation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-16769?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-16769?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-16769 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-16769 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-16769 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-16769 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-16769 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in silabs.com WiseCnnect, published on 8 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-16769 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: silabs.com WiseCnnect. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16769/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16769/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16769
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16769
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-16769

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-16769/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.