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CVE-2026-19736NVD status: Awaiting Analysis

zephyr: Out-of-bounds Write

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-19736 is a high-severity out-of-bounds write vulnerability in zephyr from Zephyr Project, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. The record lists version 4.5.0 as the first without the flaw, so updating zephyr to that release or later removes the exposure. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.11% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Update zephyr to 4.5.0 or a later version.
  2. Read the advisory on github.com for workarounds and exact fixed builds.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
Zephyr Projectzephyr4.3.0 up to, but not including, 4.5.04.5.0

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (zephyrproject.org).

Official description

The NXP MCUX TRNG entropy driver in drivers/entropy/entropy_mcux_trng.c passed the caller's byte count straight to the vendor SDK routine TRNG_GetRandomData(). On i.MX RT5xx and RT6xx parts the SDK compiles its TRNG_SW_HEALTH_TESTS variant, which always copies whole 32-bit words and draws entropy rounded up to a multiple of 128 bytes. Its "caller buffer is full" guard tests dataSize == 0, so a request whose length is not a multiple of four makes dataSize underflow past zero and the SDK keeps writing into the caller's buffer for the entire extraction: a 1-byte request results in 128 bytes written, and any non-word-multiple length overflows by up to 127 bytes. entropy_get_entropy() is a syscall, and its verifier in drivers/entropy/entropy_handlers.c validates only the requested length via K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_WRITE(). With CONFIG_USERSPACE enabled, an unprivileged user-mode thread that has merely been granted the entropy device can therefore choose both the destination address and a length such as 1, and cause the kernel to write up to 127 bytes beyond the region it proved it owns. On these Cortex-M33 targets there is no MMU, so user partitions and kernel data share one SRAM and the overflow can land in adjacent kernel state. The same defect is reached from kernel mode by any caller requesting a non-word-multiple length, including getentropy() and, in builds where sys_csrand_get()/sys_rand_get() resolve to the hardware generator, sys_rand8_get() and sys_rand16_get(). Impact is memory corruption of up to 127 bytes immediately following the supplied buffer — typically the caller's stack in kernel-mode use, or memory outside the caller's partition when driven through the syscall. The overflow offset is fully determined by the requested length and is therefore deterministic, while the written content is uncontrolled TRNG output; the practical consequences range from crashes and unpredictable state corruption to opportunistic escalation when kernel bookkeeping such as object permission bitmaps is overwritten. The affected devices are those where the MCUX SDK enables TRNG_SW_HEALTH_TESTS (MIMXRT595S, MIMXRT555S, MIMXRT533S, MIMXRT685S, MIMXRT633S), on which the TRNG is the zephyr,entropy chosen node; other SoCs using this driver take the SDK path that clamps the copy size and are unaffected. The fix routes any unaligned prefix and any sub-word tail through a local bounce word and hands the SDK only word-multiple sizes, so the SDK's word-granular writes can no longer pass the end of the caller's buffer.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Out-of-bounds Write

The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid. For example, many languages that perform their own memory management, such as Java and Perl, are not subject to buffer overflows. Other languages, such as Ada and C#, typically provide overflow protection, but the protection can be disabled by the programmer. Be wary that a language's interface to native code may still be subject to overflows, even if the language itself is theoretically safe.
  • Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid. Examples include the Safe C String Library (SafeStr) by Messier and Viega, and the Strsafe.h library from Microsoft. These libraries provide safer versions of overflow-prone string-handling functions.
  • Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking. D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND discusses canary-based detection in detail.

More Out-of-bounds Write vulnerabilities (CWE-787)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in zephyr

All zephyr vulnerabilities

Recent Out-of-bounds Write vulnerabilities

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