NVD / CVE Program· CNA zephyr

CVE-2026-10640: Use-after-free reading `net_pkt` `iface` after send in IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (`ipv6_nbr.c`)

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 28/100)

The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.37% (FIRST EPSS).
Someone on the same network segment can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
Fixed version: zephyrproject zephyr 4.3.1, 4.4.1.
Severity is disputed: the assigning authority (CNA) scores it 4.2, NVD 7.1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to zephyrproject zephyr 4.3.1, 4.4.1 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Zephyr's IPv6 Neighbor Discovery send paths (net_ipv6_send_na, net_ipv6_send_ns, net_ipv6_send_rs in subsys/net/ip/ipv6_nbr.c) updated the per-interface ICMP-sent statistics by calling net_pkt_iface(pkt) after net_send_data(pkt) had already returned successfully. On the success path the network stack owns and releases the packet's reference (the L2/driver send unrefs it, e.g. ethernet_send -> net_pkt_unref), so for a freshly allocated packet with refcount 1 the net_pkt slab block can be freed before the statistics line runs (synchronously when no TX queue thread is configured, or via a concurrent TX thread otherwise). The subsequent net_pkt_iface(pkt) reads pkt->iface from the freed slab block, and with CONFIG_NET_STATISTICS_PER_INTERFACE enabled that loaded pointer is dereferenced to increment iface->stats.icmp.sent, a use-after-free (CWE-416). If the slab block was reallocated in the meantime the read/increment targets unrelated or attacker-influenced memory, yielding corrupted statistics, a fault/crash (denial of service), or potential limited memory corruption. The vulnerable Neighbor Advertisement path is reachable by any unauthenticated on-link node simply by sending ICMPv6 Neighbor Solicitations to a Zephyr node with native IPv6 enabled (handle_ns_input -> net_ipv6_send_na). Affected from v3.3.0 through v4.4.0; the fix uses the already-available iface argument instead of touching the sent packet. Configurations without per-interface statistics dereference only a global counter and are not affected by the memory-safety aspect.

HighCVSS 7.1 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available

Published: Jun 16, 2026
Updated: Nov 4, 2026
EPSS: 0.3% · 31th percentile
CWE: CWE-416

Report tools

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Action score

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS: 28 / 40 · 7.1 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 0 / 30 · 0.3%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 7.1
CNA · zephyr: 4.2; 2.9 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
No public exploit code on record
A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
zephyrproject	zephyr	cpe:2.3:o:zephyrproject:zephyr

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

zephyrproject zephyr3.3.0 and later · before 4.5.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (zephyr). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

zephyrproject zephyr
- 3.3.0 and later · before 4.3.1affected · semver
- 4.4.0 and later · before 4.4.1affected · semver

Same product

zephyrproject: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2023-4260Potential off-by-one buffer overflow vulnerability in the Zephyr FS subsystem
40Plan
CVE-2021-3625Buffer overflow in Zephyr USB DFU DNLOAD
40Plan
CVE-2020-10071Insufficient publish message length validation in MQTT
40Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2026-10638Jun 16, 2026 · Use-after-free in Zephyr ICMPv6 RX path when updating statistics after sending an echo reply or error
30Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2026-10639Jun 16, 2026 · Use-after-free reading `net_pkt_iface()` of a sent ICMPv4 echo-reply packet in `icmpv4_handle_echo_request()`
19Monitor
Later →CVE-2026-10641Jun 17, 2026 · Out-of-bounds write in Bluetooth HFP Hands-Free CIND indicator parsing (cind_handle_values)
28Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / package	Fixed version	Source
zephyrproject zephyr	4.3.1	Vendor (CNA)
zephyrproject zephyr	4.4.1	Vendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

zephyrproject-rtos/zephyrcommit aaed833

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

CVE-2026-1236659 days apartUse-after-free freeing an armed dynamically-allocated k_timer in Zephyr userspace object disposal
35Monitor
CVE-2026-85035140 days apartUse-after-free via dynamically allocated message queue retained by the CAN RX filter
35Monitor
CVE-2026-1066726 days apartSMP use-after-free in Zephyr `CONFIG_USERSPACE` dynamic kernel-object tracking, reachable from unprivileged user threads
31Monitor
CVE-2026-79979129 days apartStale TLB entries after demand-paging page-out let arm64 user threads access reused physical frames
31Monitor
CVE-2026-106380 days apartUse-after-free in Zephyr ICMPv6 RX path when updating statistics after sending an echo reply or error
30Monitor
CVE-2026-1068545 days apartUse-after-free of GATT subscribe params in Bluetooth host CCC-write response handler
30Monitor

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

Someone on the same network segment can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: none
Integrity: low · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Attack vector: Adjacent
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality impact: None
Integrity impact: Low
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-416 · Use After Free

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

nvd-primary

Root cause

After a memory region is freed, another reference pointing to it is still used. By then, the same region may have been allocated for different data.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-416 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

1free(dev->buf);
2/* ... another thread is still running ... */
3process(dev->buf);

Fixed

1lock(&dev->lock);
2free(dev->buf);
3dev->buf = NULL;
4unlock(&dev->lock);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

Fix✗ → ✓Sep 28, 2026, 10:11 PM UTC

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/aaed8332a62b0490a2f3c2cbabe272f575068eaa

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records