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TI-2026-70792 Aliases CVE-2026-19737

NULL pointer dereference in Zephyr ESP32 I2S driver crashes system

Priority LOW 24CWE-476Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-476.

Summary

Zephyr from 4.4.0 before 4.5.0 has a NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476) in the ESP32 I2S driver. The trigger check reads a stream structure that is NULL when the requested direction is not wired on the instance, instead of returning an error. On builds with userspace enabled, a user-mode thread that has been granted the I2S device can trigger this with a single call, which halts the system. The impact is limited to availability.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29

Description from the CNA

i2s_esp32_trigger_check() in drivers/i2s/i2s_esp32.c validates the requested direction only for I2S_DIR_BOTH. The I2S_DIR_RX and I2S_DIR_TX branches read dev_cfg->rx.data->configured / dev_cfg->tx.data->configured without first checking the stream pointers. The device instantiation macro I2S_ESP32_STREAM_INIT() sets both .conf and .data to NULL for a direction the devicetree does not describe, so on an instance that wires only one direction — the normal shape for audio output or a worldsemi,ws2812-i2s LED strip — the other direction dereferences a NULL pointer instead of returning an error. i2s_trigger() is a Zephyr syscall, and z_vrfy_i2s_trigger() in drivers/i2s/i2s_handlers.c validates only the device object and the presence of the trigger API pointer; the dir argument is passed to the driver unvalidated. On a build with CONFIG_USERSPACE enabled, a user-mode thread that has been granted the I2S device can issue a single i2s_trigger() call naming the unwired direction and cause a load from address 0 in kernel mode. Among the Espressif parts that carry this driver, userspace is available in-tree only on RISC-V SoCs with CONFIG_RISCV_PMP, and v4.4.0 is the first release where that is buildable: the ESP32-C6 HPCORE selects RISCV_PMP when it is not built for MCUboot. ESP32-C5 in v4.4.x carries the same PMP-region and userspace linker support but does not select RISCV_PMP by default. Espressif Xtensa targets do not support Zephyr userspace, and in a non-userspace build the bad direction can only come from in-kernel application code. The impact is limited to availability: the access is a read at offset 0 of the missing stream structure, so there is no attacker-controlled offset, no write primitive and no information disclosure. With the default fatal-error handler the resulting exception halts the system, giving an unprivileged user-mode thread a system-wide denial of service. The fix adds the same pointer check the I2S_DIR_BOTH branch already performed and returns -ENOSYS for a direction the instance does not implement; the driver's other entry points (i2s_esp32_config_check(), i2s_esp32_config_get(), i2s_esp32_read(), i2s_esp32_write()) already guarded the pointers, and a static audit found no equivalent unguarded path. The driver defect is older than the affected range. The unguarded dereference is present from v4.2.0 (reached through i2s_esp32_trigger_stream(), whose if (stream) guard tests the address of a struct member and is never false) and takes its present i2s_esp32_trigger_check() form in v4.3.0. No in-tree Espressif configuration before v4.4.0 can run a user-mode thread, so in v4.2.x and v4.3.x the direction argument can only come from trusted kernel code. Those releases carry the bug but are not listed as affected; the fix has also been merged to v4.3-branch as hardening.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.001 0th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed zephyr (zephyrproject): 4.5.0

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
zephyrprojectzephyr4.4.0 to before 4.5.04.5.0Patch availableCNA
  • zephyr Vendorzephyrproject Affected 4.4.0 to before 4.5.0 Fixed in 4.5.0 Patch available CNA

CPE names Threatist (inferred) · 1

Inferred from how NVD named this product before; not given by a source.

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:zephyrproject:zephyr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*——zephyrproject
  • cpe:2.3:o:zephyrproject:zephyr:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions — — ·zephyrproject

Remediation

Upgrade to Zephyr 4.5.0, where the fix is included. The fix has also been merged to v4.3-branch as hardening.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29

  • Fix · CNA zephyr (zephyrproject) Fixed in 4.5.0

Fixed in the same release

Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.

  • Release ·

    zephyrproject zephyr 4.5.0

    5 records Highest priority Priority LOW 5 LOW

    Other records, highest priority first

    • TI-2026-70791 Out-of-bounds write in Zephyr NXP MCUX TRNG entropy driverPriority LOW 35
    • TI-2026-70796 Use-after-free in Zephyr Bluetooth L2CAP CoC channel teardownPriority LOW 34
    • TI-2026-70788 Out-of-bounds read in Zephyr IPv6 route forwardingPriority LOW 31

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-11 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-19737
  2. 2026-10-12 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
  3. 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed

References

  • TI-2026-04422 Out-of-bounds read/write in HTTP WebSocket upgrade via non-null-terminated Sec-WebSocket-Key CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-01361 dns: memory‑safety issue in the DNS name parser CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-09174 Unterminated URI buffer causes out-of-bounds read in LwM2M firmware pull (Package URI) CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.1
  • TI-2026-09168 Stack buffer overflow in `net_ipaddr_parse()` IPv4 address-with-port parsing in `subsys/net/ip/utils.c` CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2024-09625 net: lib: http_server: Buffer Under-read CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.6
  • TI-2021-02863 Usb bluetooth device ACL read cb buffer overflow CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.6
See all 341 →

Sources

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences