Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 8.4

CVE-2026-12364 json

Missing user-space pointer validation in logging syscall z_log_msg_static_create allows kernel memory disclosure and denial of service

published 2026-08-14 2 mo ago modified 2026-11-04 5 d ago also EUVD-2026-58750

cvss
8.4
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The user-space system-call verifier z_vrfy_z_log_msg_static_create() in subsys/logging/log_msg.c was a pure pass-through: it forwarded the caller-supplied source, desc, package, and data arguments directly to the kernel-mode implementation z_impl_z_log_msg_static_create() without performing any of the mandatory K_SYSCALL_* checks. Because z_log_msg_static_create() is declared __syscall, under CONFIG_USERSPACE any unprivileged user-mode thread can invoke it directly with fully attacker-controlled arguments.

The kernel-mode handler dereferences each of these untrusted values: frontend_runtime_filtering() reads through the source pointer as a struct log_source_dynamic_data, cbprintf_package_copy() reads desc.package_len bytes from the package pointer, and z_log_msg_finalize() performs a memcpy() of desc.data_len bytes from the data pointer. With no verification, a user thread can supply arbitrary kernel addresses and arbitrary lengths, and the kernel will read from them.

The impact is a kernel-mode denial of service (the kernel faults dereferencing an attacker-chosen pointer) and, where a log backend output is observable to the attacker, disclosure of arbitrary kernel memory copied into the emitted log message — a confidentiality breach across the user/kernel boundary that the userspace sandbox is meant to enforce. The reads do not corrupt kernel memory, so there is no out-of-bounds write primitive.

The fix adds the required validation to the verifier: it bounds desc.package_len against Z_LOG_MSG_MAX_PACKAGE, rejects non-NULL/length mismatches, and applies K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_READ() to package, data, and (when runtime filtering with a frontend is enabled) source, so any out-of-bounds or kernel pointer now raises K_OOPS instead of being honored.

Patch / fix

  • zephyrproject zephyr 4.3.2, 4.4.2

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • zephyrproject zephyr

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-822 Untrusted Pointer Dereference

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.