CVE-2026-10681
MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS 3.1
Description
In Zephyr's userspace dynamic-objects subsystem, thread_idx_alloc() in kernel/userspace/userspace.c allocated a new thread permission index from the global _thread_idx_map[] bitmap without holding lists_lock.
On SMP systems, two user-mode threads invoking the k_object_alloc(K_OBJ_THREAD) syscall concurrently can both observe the same low free bit, perform the same non-atomic RMW to clear it, and return the identical tidx.
The two newly created K_OBJ_THREAD objects are then assigned the same thread_id, so the two user threads alias a single bit position in every kernel object's perms[] bitfield: any subsequent grant of access on a kernel object to one thread is implicitly a grant to the other, defeating userspace ACL isolation. A secondary lost-update window between the unlocked &=~BIT() in alloc and the locked |= BIT() in thread_idx_free() can also leak entries from the thread-index pool.
The defect is reachable from any user-mode thread via the unrestricted __syscall k_object_alloc and is gated on CONFIG_USERSPACE, CONFIG_DYNAMIC_OBJECTS, and CONFIG_SMP. The flaw was introduced when the per-thread permission index was added in 2018 and is present in every release up to and including v4.4.0. Fixed by holding lists_lock across the bitmap RMW and the permissions clear (and inlining the obj_list traversal that previously took the lock itself).
Metadata
Severity & Metrics
6.5
MEDIUM CVSS 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
Affected products (1)
| Vendor | Product | Platform | Versions |
|---|---|---|---|
| zephyrproject | zephyr | — | 2.0.0 < 4.5.0 |
Weakness (CWE)
| CWE | Source | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CWE-362 | cna | race |
CVSS scores (1)
| Score | Severity | Version | Source | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5 | MEDIUM | 3.1 | cna | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L |
References (2)