Vulnerability · Published Aug 14, 2026 · Assigned by zephyr

CVE-2026-12364Missing user-space pointer validation in logging syscall z_log_msg_static_create allows kernel memory disclosure and denial of service

High 8.4

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in zephyr from zephyrproject. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 5% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)8.4High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.9% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

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.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
zephyrproject zephyr 2.6.0 – before 4.3.24.4.0 – before 4.4.2

Weakness: CWE-822 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:H

References