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NVD / CVE Program· CNA zephyr

CVE-2026-10648: NULL-pointer dereference in MCUmgr serial/console SMP transport on buffer-pool exhaustion

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 22/100)

  • 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: 0.15% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: zephyrproject zephyr 4.4.1.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to zephyrproject zephyr 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

mcumgr_serial_process_frag() in subsys/mgmt/mcumgr/transport/src/serial_util.c calls net_buf_reset() on the result of smp_packet_alloc() before checking it for NULL. smp_packet_alloc() uses net_buf_alloc(K_NO_WAIT) against the shared MCUmgr packet pool (CONFIG_MCUMGR_TRANSPORT_NETBUF_COUNT, default 4), which returns NULL when the pool is exhausted. In default builds the __ASSERT_NO_MSG in net_buf_reset is a no-op, so net_buf_simple_reset writes through the NULL pointer (buf->len = 0; buf->data = buf->__buf), causing a fault/crash. The fragment data reaches this code from attacker-controlled bytes on the MCUmgr serial/UART/shell-console transports (smp_uart.c, smp_raw_uart.c, smp_shell.c), and a fresh buffer is allocated at the start of essentially every new packet. An attacker on the serial/console link can flood the transport to drive the 4-entry buffer pool to exhaustion and induce the NULL dereference, crashing the device (denial of service). The defect was introduced after the original MCUmgr rework and shipped in Zephyr v4.4.0. The fix moves the NULL check ahead of net_buf_reset.

MediumCVSS 5.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Jun 29, 2026
Updated
Nov 4, 2026
EPSS
0.1% · 4th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

22

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
22 / 40 · 5.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.1%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
5.5
CNA · zephyr
6.2
0.7 point gap

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

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

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2026-10648

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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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.

VendorProduct
zephyrprojectzephyr

Affected versions

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

  • zephyrproject zephyr4.4.0

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

    • 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-2026-10646Jun 28, 2026 · Use-after-return in `zsock_getaddrinfo()` when a timed-out DNS query is retried without cancellation
    29Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-10647Jun 29, 2026 · Deadlock denial of service in USB CDC-NCM device class on TX enqueue failure
    21Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-7656Jun 29, 2026 · Broken IPv6 Neighbor Discovery input validation allows spoofed RA/NS/NA acceptance in Zephyr net stack
    27Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

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

Product / packageFixed versionSource
zephyrproject zephyr4.4.1Vendor (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.

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-2026-1067822 days apartNULL-pointer / out-of-bounds write in Zephyr MCTP I2C+GPIO target binding driven by an unauthenticated I2C controller
    32Monitor
  • CVE-2026-1181042 days apartNULL-pointer dereference in UpdateHub OTA agent on empty inner metadata array (remote DoS)
    30Monitor
  • CVE-2026-1589176 days apartNULL pointer dereference in Zephyr MQTT-SN client when removing a non-responsive gateway
    30Monitor
  • CVE-2026-87045130 days apartNULL pointer dereference in the Zephyr HTTP/2 server when a header block is completed by a CONTINUATION frame
    30Monitor
  • CVE-2026-79976114 days apartNULL pointer dereference in the MCTP I2C+GPIO target binding triggerable by a peer I2C controller
    28Monitor
  • CVE-2026-105931 days apartRemotely triggerable NULL-pointer dereference in Bluetooth LE Audio BAP unicast client QoS-state handling
    26Monitor

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 with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

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

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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References

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

All records