Vulnerability-Lookup

CVE-2026-9728 (GCVE-0-2026-9728)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-08-24 14:28 – Updated: 2026-08-25 19:06

Title

TOCTOU race in mbox_send syscall verifier allows userspace to leak kernel memory

Summary

The userspace syscall verifier z_vrfy_mbox_send() in drivers/mbox/mbox_handlers.c validated the nested msg->data/msg->size fields by reading them directly out of live userspace memory, and then forwarded the original, still-mutable userspace struct mbox_msg * pointer to z_impl_mbox_send() and the underlying driver. Between the access check and the driver's use of msg->data, the validated pointer could be replaced, leaving a time-of-check/time-of-use window. On a system built with CONFIG_USERSPACE, any unprivileged userspace thread may invoke the mbox_send() system call. A second thread sharing the caller's address space can race to overwrite msg->data with a supervisor (kernel) address after the verifier's bounds check has passed but before the driver dereferences it. The driver then reads from the attacker-chosen address in supervisor context (for example memcpy(&data32, msg->data, msg->size) in the NXP mailbox driver, whose bytes are subsequently emitted to the peer mailbox endpoint). The impact is a userspace-to-supervisor access-control bypass: disclosure of kernel memory contents (high confidentiality impact), or, for an invalid/unmapped target address, a faulting kernel read causing denial of service. The fix snapshots the entire struct mbox_msg into a kernel-stack copy with k_usermode_from_copy() and validates and forwards that immutable copy, closing the race.

Severity

6.4 (Medium)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:L

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2026-08-25 19:06 UTC

CWE

CWE-367 - race

Assigner

zephyr mitre root

References

2 references

URL	Tags
https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/comm…	patch
https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/secu…

Impacted products

1 product

Vendor	Product	Version	CPE status
zephyrproject	zephyr	Affected: 3.0.0 , < 4.4.2 (semver)	guessed

Show details on NVD website

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FKIE_CVE-2026-9728

Vulnerability from fkie_nvd - Published: 2026-08-24 15:16 - Updated: 2026-08-26 16:59

Severity

6.4 (Medium) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:L

Summary

References

	URL	Tags
	vulnerabilities@zephyrproject.org	https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/ab35eaccec5976f05c196f176d0c32885754496f
	vulnerabilities@zephyrproject.org	https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-47q2-w832-7w67

Impacted products

	Vendor	Product	Version

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "collectionURL": "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr",
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "packageName": "zephyr",
          "product": "zephyr",
          "programFiles": [
            "drivers/mbox/mbox_handlers.c"
          ],
          "vendor": "zephyrproject",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThan": "4.4.2",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "3.0.0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "source": "vulnerabilities@zephyrproject.org"
    }
  ],
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "The userspace syscall verifier z_vrfy_mbox_send() in drivers/mbox/mbox_handlers.c validated the nested msg-\u003edata/msg-\u003esize fields by reading them directly out of live userspace memory, and then forwarded the original, still-mutable userspace struct mbox_msg * pointer to z_impl_mbox_send() and the underlying driver. Between the access check and the driver\u0027s use of msg-\u003edata, the validated pointer could be replaced, leaving a time-of-check/time-of-use window.\n\nOn a system built with CONFIG_USERSPACE, any unprivileged userspace thread may invoke the mbox_send() system call. A second thread sharing the caller\u0027s address space can race to overwrite msg-\u003edata with a supervisor (kernel) address after the verifier\u0027s bounds check has passed but before the driver dereferences it. The driver then reads from the attacker-chosen address in supervisor context (for example memcpy(\u0026data32, msg-\u003edata, msg-\u003esize) in the NXP mailbox driver, whose bytes are subsequently emitted to the peer mailbox endpoint).\n\nThe impact is a userspace-to-supervisor access-control bypass: disclosure of kernel memory contents (high confidentiality impact), or, for an invalid/unmapped target address, a faulting kernel read causing denial of service. The fix snapshots the entire struct mbox_msg into a kernel-stack copy with k_usermode_from_copy() and validates and forwards that immutable copy, closing the race."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-9728",
  "lastModified": "2026-08-26T16:59:23.267",
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
      {
        "cvssData": {
          "attackComplexity": "HIGH",
          "attackVector": "LOCAL",
          "availabilityImpact": "LOW",
          "baseScore": 6.4,
          "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
          "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
          "integrityImpact": "NONE",
          "privilegesRequired": "LOW",
          "scope": "CHANGED",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
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        "type": "Secondary"
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    }
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}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.

Action not permitted

CVE-2026-9728 (GCVE-0-2026-9728)

FKIE_CVE-2026-9728

Tags

Sightings

Nomenclature