Use After Free in Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10640
Zephyr's IPv6 Neighbor Discovery send paths (net_ipv6_send_na, net_ipv6_send_ns, net_ipv6_send_rs in subsys/net/ip/ipv6_nbr.c) updated the per-interface ICMP-sent statistics by calling net_pkt_iface(pkt) after net_send_data(pkt) had already returned successfully. On the success path the network stack owns and releases the packet's reference (the L2/driver send unrefs it, e.g. ethernet_send -> net_pkt_unref), so for a freshly allocated packet with refcount 1 the net_pkt slab block can be freed before the statistics line runs (synchronously when no TX queue thread is configured, or via a concurrent TX thread otherwise). The subsequent net_pkt_iface(pkt) reads pkt->iface from the freed slab block, and with CONFIG_NET_STATISTICS_PER_INTERFACE enabled that loaded pointer is dereferenced to increment iface->stats.icmp.sent, a use-after-free (CWE-416). If the slab block was reallocated in the meantime the read/increment targets unrelated or attacker-influenced memory, yielding corrupted statistics, a fault/crash (denial of service), or potential limited memory corruption. The vulnerable Neighbor Advertisement path is reachable by any unauthenticated on-link node simply by sending ICMPv6 Neighbor Solicitations to a Zephyr node with native IPv6 enabled (handle_ns_input -> net_ipv6_send_na). Affected from v3.3.0 through v4.4.0; the fix uses the already-available iface argument instead of touching the sent packet. Configurations without per-interface statistics dereference only a global counter and are not affected by the memory-safety aspect.
Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free
EPSS: 0.004 (30.5th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 4.2 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L.
Affected products
- Zephyrproject Zephyr — versions 3.3.0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- vulnerabilities@zephyrproject.org (Patch, patch)
- vulnerabilities@zephyrproject.org (Exploit, Vendor Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-10640?
- CVE-2026-10640 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Zephyrproject Zephyr, classified under Use After Free. CVSS score: 4.2/10. Published 2026-06-16.
- How severe is CVE-2026-10640?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.2 out of 10.