{ "dataType": "CVE_RECORD", "dataVersion": "5.2", "cveMetadata": { "cveId": "CVE-2026-19737", "assignerOrgId": "e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad", "state": "PUBLISHED", "assignerShortName": "zephyr", "dateReserved": "2026-08-13T13:46:28.028Z", "datePublished": "2026-10-11T17:15:01.878Z", "dateUpdated": "2026-10-11T17:15:01.878Z" }, "containers": { "cna": { "providerMetadata": { "orgId": "e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad", "shortName": "zephyr", "dateUpdated": "2026-10-11T17:15:01.878Z" }, "title": "NULL pointer dereference in the ESP32 I2S driver when triggering an unsupported direction", "descriptions": [ { "lang": "en", "value": "i2s_esp32_trigger_check() in drivers/i2s/i2s_esp32.c validates the requested direction only for I2S_DIR_BOTH. The I2S_DIR_RX and I2S_DIR_TX branches read dev_cfg->rx.data->configured / dev_cfg->tx.data->configured without first checking the stream pointers. The device instantiation macro I2S_ESP32_STREAM_INIT() sets both .conf and .data to NULL for a direction the devicetree does not describe, so on an instance that wires only one direction — the normal shape for audio output or a worldsemi,ws2812-i2s LED strip — the other direction dereferences a NULL pointer instead of returning an error.\n\ni2s_trigger() is a Zephyr syscall, and z_vrfy_i2s_trigger() in drivers/i2s/i2s_handlers.c validates only the device object and the presence of the trigger API pointer; the dir argument is passed to the driver unvalidated. On a build with CONFIG_USERSPACE enabled, a user-mode thread that has been granted the I2S device can issue a single i2s_trigger() call naming the unwired direction and cause a load from address 0 in kernel mode. Among the Espressif parts that carry this driver, userspace is available in-tree only on RISC-V SoCs with CONFIG_RISCV_PMP, and v4.4.0 is the first release where that is buildable: the ESP32-C6 HPCORE selects RISCV_PMP when it is not built for MCUboot. ESP32-C5 in v4.4.x carries the same PMP-region and userspace linker support but does not select RISCV_PMP by default. Espressif Xtensa targets do not support Zephyr userspace, and in a non-userspace build the bad direction can only come from in-kernel application code.\n\nThe impact is limited to availability: the access is a read at offset 0 of the missing stream structure, so there is no attacker-controlled offset, no write primitive and no information disclosure. With the default fatal-error handler the resulting exception halts the system, giving an unprivileged user-mode thread a system-wide denial of service. The fix adds the same pointer check the I2S_DIR_BOTH branch already performed and returns -ENOSYS for a direction the instance does not implement; the driver's other entry points (i2s_esp32_config_check(), i2s_esp32_config_get(), i2s_esp32_read(), i2s_esp32_write()) already guarded the pointers, and a static audit found no equivalent unguarded path.\n\nThe driver defect is older than the affected range. The unguarded dereference is present from v4.2.0 (reached through i2s_esp32_trigger_stream(), whose if (stream) guard tests the address of a struct member and is never false) and takes its present i2s_esp32_trigger_check() form in v4.3.0. No in-tree Espressif configuration before v4.4.0 can run a user-mode thread, so in v4.2.x and v4.3.x the direction argument can only come from trusted kernel code. Those releases carry the bug but are not listed as affected; the fix has also been merged to v4.3-branch as hardening." } ], "affected": [ { "vendor": "zephyrproject", "product": "zephyr", "collectionURL": "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr", "packageName": "zephyr", "defaultStatus": "unaffected", "programFiles": [ "drivers/i2s/i2s_esp32.c" ], "programRoutines": [ { "name": "i2s_esp32_trigger" }, { "name": "i2s_esp32_trigger_check" } ], "versions": [ { "version": "4.4.0", "status": "affected", "lessThan": "4.5.0", "versionType": "semver" } ] } ], "references": [ { "url": "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/0d82dbbe72f154de32cc45021a9f59d9a737246b", "name": "Fix commit", "tags": [ "patch" ] }, { "url": "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-5g9q-h8wq-rrf3", "name": "GHSA-5g9q-h8wq-rrf3" } ], "metrics": [ { "format": "CVSS", "cvssV3_1": { "version": "3.1", "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H", "baseScore": 5.5, "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM" } } ], "problemTypes": [ { "descriptions": [ { "lang": "en", "description": "memory-safety", "cweId": "CWE-476", "type": "CWE" } ] } ], "x_generator": { "engine": "cvelib 1.8.0" } } } }