# CVE-2026-52738: ZEBRA: Finalized address balance credit-first overflow on consensus-valid blocks

> A specially crafted block causes a panic in Zebra nodes due to intermediate balance overflow, leading to permanent denial of service until patched.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w834-cf6p-9m9w

## What is CVE-2026-52738?

CVE-2026-52738 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ZcashFoundation zebra, published on 18 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

ZEBRA is a Zcash node written entirely in Rust. Prior to 4.5.0, a consensus-valid block containing a long chain of transparent self-spends to one address can permanently halt Zebra nodes. In zebra-state/src/service/finalized_state/zebra_db/transparent.rs, the finalized-state writer originally applied every newly created output as a credit before applying any spent-output debit from the same block. That credit-first ordering can make the intermediate per-address balance exceed MAX_MONEY even though the final net balance is valid, causing an expect-based panic under the panic equals abort release profile. Because zcashd accepts the triggering block and Zebra encounters it again after every restart, the halt persists until patched software is deployed; exploitation requires mining the specially constructed block and temporarily committing sufficient ZEC to the self-spend chain. This issue is fixed in version 4.5.0.

Weakness: CWE-248 (Uncaught Exception)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-52738?

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-2026-52738?

Upgrade zebra-state to 7.0.0 or later.

## Is CVE-2026-52738 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52738 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-52738 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-52738 is a medium-severity vulnerability in ZcashFoundation zebra, published on 18 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-52738 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-2026-52738/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52738/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-52738
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-52738
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-52738

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-52738/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.