CVE-2026-9728

TOCTOU race in mbox_send syscall verifier allows userspace to leak kernel memory

MEDIUM
6.4
CVSS Score
Published: August 24, 2026 at 02:28 PM UTC
Updated: October 12, 2026 at 03:10 PM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsZephyrZephyr

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Severity
MEDIUM6.4
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

The userspace syscall verifier z_vrfy_mbox_send() in drivers/mbox/mbox_handlers.c validated the nested msg->data/msg->size fields by reading them directly out of live userspace memory, and then forwarded the original, still-mutable userspace struct mbox_msg * pointer to z_impl_mbox_send() and the underlying driver. Between the access check and the driver's use of msg->data, the validated pointer could be replaced, leaving a time-of-check/time-of-use window. On a system built with CONFIG_USERSPACE, any unprivileged userspace thread may invoke the mbox_send() system call. A second thread sharing the caller's address space can race to overwrite msg->data with a supervisor (kernel) address after the verifier's bounds check has passed but before the driver dereferences it. The driver then reads from the attacker-chosen address in supervisor context (for example memcpy(&data32, msg->data, msg->size) in the NXP mailbox driver, whose bytes are subsequently emitted to the peer mailbox endpoint). The impact is a userspace-to-supervisor access-control bypass: disclosure of kernel memory contents (high confidentiality impact), or, for an invalid/unmapped target address, a faulting kernel read causing denial of service. The fix snapshots the entire struct mbox_msg into a kernel-stack copy with k_usermode_from_copy() and validates and forwards that immutable copy, closing the race.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

3.0.0 ≤ v < 4.4.23.0.0
Affected range stops below 4.4.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

6.4MEDIUMzephyr
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusAWAITING ANALYSIS
CWE
CWE-367

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