VulnerabilityPublished 14 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-16147: zephyrproject zephyr · Use After Free

Affects zephyrproject zephyrSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.8 Medium : upgrade to 4.4.2 when convenient.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 19:04 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.8Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 17% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 4.4.2

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

Attack Vector: Physical
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Physical: The attack requires the attacker to physically touch or manipulate the vulnerable component. Physical interaction may be brief or persistent.
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 14 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade zephyrproject zephyr to 4.4.2.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
zephyrprojectzephyr	Affected >=4.0.0 <4.4.2	Fixed in 4.4.2
GitHubzephyr`pkg:github/zephyr`Other threats	Affected >=4.0.0 <4.4.2	Fixed in 4.4.2

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

The described fix defers buffer submission until it is completely filled and ensures each buffer is submitted exactly once, preventing use-after-free and double-free conditions. If you cannot patch yet, avoid exposure to untrusted USB hosts or disable affected USB device-controller functionality if possible.

Description

The ITE IT82xx2 USB device-controller driver (drivers/usb/udc/udc_it82xx2.c) mishandles multi-packet OUT transfers on non-control endpoints. In work_handler_out() the active transfer buffer is obtained with udc_buf_peek() (which does not dequeue it); when a full max-packet-size packet arrives but the buffer still has tailroom (the transfer is not yet complete), the pre-fix code both re-arms the endpoint to keep filling that same buf via work_handler_xfer_continue() and simultaneously hands the same, still-being-filled buffer to the upper stack with udc_submit_ep_event(). Because udc_submit_ep_event() transfers ownership of the buffer to the USB device stack (usbd_event_carrier() appends &buf->node to uds_ctx->ep_events, after which the class handler processes and net_buf_unref()s it), the driver continues to DMA subsequent host-controlled OUT packets into a buffer the upper stack may already have freed and recycled — a use-after-free write. In addition, since the buffer was never dequeued, the completing packet runs udc_buf_get() on the same object and submits it a second time, appending &buf->node to the event slist twice (singly-linked-list corruption) and causing a double net_buf_unref(). The IT82xx2 is a USB peripheral controller, so the untrusted USB host controls OUT-transfer packetization and can force this path against any non-control OUT endpoint whose queued buffer exceeds one packet — an ordinary bulk/interrupt pattern. The driver and USB device stack run in kernel context above the external host, giving the host a device-side kernel heap-corruption primitive: a reliable denial of service and, because the written bytes are attacker-controlled, plausible corruption of adjacent net_buf pool memory. The vector is physical (USB attach). The fix defers submission until the buffer is completely filled and lets xfer_work_handler() drive continuation, so each OUT buffer is submitted to the upper stack exactly once.

Impact

An untrusted USB host can exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted multi-packet OUT transfers to non-control endpoints, causing use-after-free and double-free conditions in the kernel USB device stack. This results in kernel heap corruption, which can lead to reliable denial of service and possible corruption of adjacent memory. The impact includes confidentiality, integrity, and availability loss as indicated by the CVSS vector (C:H/I:H/A:H).

Summary

The IT82xx2 USB device-controller driver in Zephyr mishandles multi-packet OUT transfers on non-control endpoints by prematurely submitting a buffer to the USB device stack before it is fully filled. This results in a use-after-free write because the driver continues DMA operations on a buffer that the upper stack may have freed and recycled. Additionally, the buffer is submitted twice, causing singly-linked-list corruption and double freeing of the buffer. An untrusted USB host can exploit this by controlling OUT-transfer packetization, leading to kernel heap corruption, denial of service, and potential memory corruption. The vulnerability affects Zephyr versions >=4.0.0 and <4.4.2. The fix defers submission until the buffer is fully filled and ensures each buffer is submitted once.

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 14 Sep 2026, 20:01 UTC

Technical details

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