# CVE-2026-52733: ZEBRA: Persistent on-disk corruption of Sapling/Orchard subtree roots after chain fork via pop_tip


- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2gf8-q9rr-jq3h

## What is CVE-2026-52733?

CVE-2026-52733 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ZcashFoundation zebra, published on 18 Aug 2026. 

### Official description

ZEBRA is a Zcash node written entirely in Rust. Prior to 4.5.0, a natural or attacker-influenced chain fork can leave stale Sapling and Orchard note-commitment subtree roots in Zebra state. In zebra-state/src/service/non_finalized_state/chain.rs, Chain::pop_tip removed a reverted tip block but did not remove subtree entries whose end_height belonged to that block, unlike the cleanup performed by pop_root. When the winning fork later finalized, the abandoned branch's stale subtree data could be written to RocksDB and survive node restarts. The corrupted history can cause z_getsubtreesbyindex consumers such as lightwalletd and light wallets to receive incorrect subtree roots, producing wallet synchronization failures or incorrect wallet state and requiring a full state rebuild for recovery. This issue is fixed in version 4.5.0.

Weakness: CWE-672 (Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release), CWE-459 (Incomplete Cleanup)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52733?

4 open source packages ship an affected version, including zebra-state and zebrad.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `zebra-state` | crates.io | All versions | 7.0.0 |
| `zebra-state` | crates.io | All versions | 7.0.0 |
| `zebrad` | crates.io | All versions | 4.5.0 |
| `zebrad` | crates.io | All versions | 4.5.0 |

## How do I fix CVE-2026-52733?

Upgrade zebra-state to 7.0.0 or later.

## Is CVE-2026-52733 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52733 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-52733 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-52733 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ZcashFoundation zebra, published on 18 Aug 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52733 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- zebra-state (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 7.0.0
- zebra-state (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 7.0.0
- zebrad (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 4.5.0
- zebrad (crates.io): affected all versions; fixed in 4.5.0

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-2026-52733/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52733/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52733
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-52733
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-52733

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52733/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.