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TI-2026-78932 Aliases CVE-2026-19947

Missing permission check in Zephyr devmux lets user threads retarget output

Priority LOW 23CWE-862Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Security bypass
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
Low · Low · Low
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-862.

Summary

Zephyr from 3.6.0 before 4.5.0 lacks a kernel object permission check in devmux system calls (CWE-862), so user-mode threads can read and change which downstream device a multiplexer forwards to. Devmux instances are never registered as kernel objects, so no permission on them can be granted or withheld. An unprivileged local thread can suppress console, log or shell output, or redirect it to a downstream device it can observe, but no memory-safety issue is reachable. Exposure requires CONFIG_USERSPACE, the experimental CONFIG_DEVMUX and a zephyr,devmux devicetree node.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-28

Description from the CNA

The device multiplexer pseudo-driver in drivers/misc/devmux/devmux.c exposes two system calls, devmux_select_get() and devmux_select_set(). When CONFIG_USERSPACE is enabled, their user-mode verifiers z_vrfy_devmux_select_get() and z_vrfy_devmux_select_set() forwarded directly to the kernel implementations without performing any kernel-object validation — no k_object_access_check() and no driver object check. Compounding this, DEVICE_DT_INST_DEFINE() registered devmux instances with a NULL driver API pointer, which causes scripts/build/gen_kobject_list.py to skip them entirely, so a devmux device had no struct k_object and no permission on it could be granted or withheld in the first place. Any thread running in user mode can reach the defect: device pointers such as DEVICE_DT_GET(DT_NODELABEL(devmux0)) are compile-time constants available to application code, and the syscall accepted them from a thread that had never been granted access to the device. The kernel implementations do validate the pointer against the static devmux instance table and bounds-check the selection index, so this is not a memory-safety issue; the failure is purely one of authorization. Exposure requires CONFIG_USERSPACE=y together with the experimental CONFIG_DEVMUX=y (which depends on CONFIG_DEVICE_MUTABLE) and a zephyr,devmux devicetree node. An unprivileged user-mode thread can read and change which downstream device a multiplexer forwards to, bypassing the userspace object-permission model. Because a devmux forwards the data, configuration and API of the selected device — its documented use being zephyr,console and zephyr,shell-uart switching — an attacker can suppress console, log and shell output, redirect that output to a downstream device it is able to observe, or flip the selection underneath another thread that is legitimately using the multiplexer. The impact is bounded to the devicetree-fixed set of downstream devices; no out-of-bounds access or arbitrary pointer dereference is reachable. The fix declares __subsystem struct devmux_driver_api and attaches a DEVICE_API(devmux, devmux_api) instance to each devmux device so that it becomes a tracked K_OBJ_DRIVER_DEVMUX kernel object, and adds K_OOPS(devmux_inst_get(dev) == SIZE_MAX) plus K_OOPS(k_object_access_check(dev) != 0) to both verifiers.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00126 2nd 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
zephyrprojectzephyr3.6.0 to before 4.5.04.5.0Patch availableCNA
  • zephyr Vendorzephyrproject Affected 3.6.0 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 Zephyr to version 4.5.0 or later, which adds the missing kernel object checks to the devmux system calls. Zephyr releases from 3.6.0 before 4.5.0 are affected.

Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-28

  • 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

    3 records Highest priority Priority LOW 3 LOW

    Other records, highest priority first

    • TI-2026-78935 Race condition in Zephyr timer wait queue handling on SMPPriority LOW 32
    • TI-2026-78936 Out-of-bounds write in Zephyr NPCX eSPI TAF receive pathPriority LOW 27

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-21 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-19947
  2. 2026-10-23 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