CVE-2026-78117: Race condition on shared HCI TX descriptor in the Infineon PSOC 6 BLESS Bluetooth driver can leak adjacent memory over the air
Noroxi assessment
Priority: Monitor (action score 16/100)
- 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: 0.16% (FIRST EPSS).
- Someone on the same network segment can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. Special conditions such as timing or configuration are required.
- Fixed version: zephyrproject zephyr 4.3.2, 4.5.0.
Low priority for now. Upgrade to zephyrproject zephyr 4.3.2, 4.5.0 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
The Infineon PSOC 6 BLESS HCI driver in drivers/bluetooth/hci/hci_infineon_psoc6_bless.c stored the outgoing HCI packet descriptor in a file-scope variable, static cy_stc_ble_hci_tx_packet_info_t hci_tx_pkt. psoc6_bless_send() cleared and populated that descriptor's packetType, dataLength and data fields before acquiring psoc6_bless_operation_sem, so the driver's serialising semaphore protected only the call into Cy_BLE_SoftHciSendAppPkt() and not the shared state that call reads. The Bluetooth host does not guarantee a single HCI sender. Most transmissions are funnelled through the cooperative TX-processor work queue, but bt_hci_cmd_send() deliberately bypasses bt_dev.cmd_tx_queue for BT_HCI_OP_HOST_NUM_COMPLETED_PACKETS and calls bt_send() directly from the caller's thread; that caller is bt_hci_host_num_completed_packets(), the acl_in_pool destroy callback, which runs on whichever thread drops the last reference to a received ACL buffer. CONFIG_BT_HCI_ACL_FLOW_CONTROL defaults to y on this driver's boards, and an application that returns -EINPROGRESS from its L2CAP recv callback and later calls bt_l2cap_chan_recv_complete() performs that unref from its own preemptible thread. A remote peer that generates Bluetooth traffic concurrently with the device's own transmissions raises the collision rate. When two senders interleave, the semaphore holder can hand the controller a descriptor whose dataLength comes from one net_buf and whose data pointer comes from another — or one whose buffer has already been returned to its pool. The controller then copies and transmits up to a full HCI/ACL payload starting at a shorter or recycled buffer, disclosing adjacent RAM contents to the connected peer; other interleavings duplicate one HCI packet and silently drop another, disrupting the link. The driver only reads through the shared descriptor, so no memory corruption or write primitive results, and the disclosed bytes are not attacker-chosen. The fix makes the descriptor a local variable in psoc6_bless_send(), removing the shared state; Cy_BLE_SoftHciSendAppPkt() copies the packet before returning, so it need not outlive the call.
- Published
- Oct 21, 2026
- Updated
- Nov 4, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.1% · 5th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-362
Report tools
Action score
16
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 16 / 40 · 4.2 / 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
- —
- CNA · zephyr
- 4.2
- NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.
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.
Is your version affected? Check itNoroxi 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.
We use this product, ask for helpAffected 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.
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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
- 3.4.0 and later · before 4.3.2affected · semver
- 4.4.0 and later · before 4.5.0affected · semver
Same product
zephyrproject: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2023-4260Potential off-by-one buffer overflow vulnerability in the Zephyr FS subsystem40Plan
- CVE-2021-3625Buffer overflow in Zephyr USB DFU DNLOAD40Plan
- CVE-2020-10071Insufficient publish message length validation in MQTT40Plan
Published before and after this one in the same product
- ← EarlierCVE-2026-19947Oct 21, 2026 · Missing kernel object permission check in devmux syscalls allows unprivileged user threads to retarget a device multiplexer21Monitor
- ← EarlierCVE-2026-78116Oct 21, 2026 · Double free of an RTIO submission in the Broadcom AFBR-S50 sensor driver data-evaluation error path20Monitor
- Later →CVE-2026-78118Oct 21, 2026 · Race condition on kernel wait queues: unlocked z_waitq_head() read in the timer expiration handler can yield a stale or sentinel thread pointer on SMP28Monitor
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 | 4.3.2 | Vendor (CNA) |
| zephyrproject zephyr | 4.5.0 | 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.
- Published
- Fix recorded+13 d
- TodayNov 13, 2026+22 d
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
- CVE-2026-781180 days apartRace condition on kernel wait queues: unlocked z_waitq_head() read in the timer expiration handler can yield a stale or sentinel thread pointer on SMP28Monitor
- CVE-2026-1068188 days apartSMP race in `thread_idx_alloc()` lets concurrent `k_object_alloc(K_OBJ_THREAD)` callers share a kernel-object permission slot28Monitor
- CVE-2026-1957112 days apartRace condition in ITE IT8xxx2 SHI host-command backend lets a second SPI request write an unvalidated length into the in-flight request buffer26Monitor
- CVE-2026-199368 days apartBluetooth Mesh delayable message queue: unsynchronized list access leads to NULL pointer dereference19Monitor
- CVE-2026-823905 days apartCross-session AES key confusion in the Espressif ESP32 hardware crypto driver14Monitor
- CVE-2026-1436751 days apartI3C IBI work-node free-list data race between ISR and workqueue thread12Monitor
Not on record for this CVE: researcher credit · public bounty program.
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Someone on the same network segment can trigger it.
- No account or password is required.
- No user action is required.
- Special conditions such as timing or configuration are required.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- low · data can be read
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- low · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Adjacent
- Attack complexity
- High
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- Low
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- Low
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-362 · Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L
nvd-secondary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
ATT&CK techniques
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Change log
- Fix✗ → ✓
- SSVC exploitation— → none
- Exploit maturity— → none
For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →
References
Show all references (1 more)Show less
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.