CVE-2026-75084: Out-of-bounds write in the TI CC1200 IEEE 802.15.4 driver from an unvalidated radio-supplied packet length

Published Oct 14, 2026
·
Updated

The CC1200 sub-GHz IEEE 802.15.4 driver takes the PHY packet length from the first byte of the radio's RX FIFO in getpacketlength() and validates it in verifyrxfifovalidity() (drivers/ieee802154/ieee802154cc1200.c). That validation only enforced a lower bound (pktlen < 3); its second clause rejects a FIFO that holds more bytes than declared and therefore never bounds large values. Because the driver configures the radio for variable packet length with PKTLEN = 0xFF, the length byte is an over-the-air value of 0-255 that reached netpktrxallocwithbuffer() and the subsequent SPI burst read unclamped.

An unauthenticated attacker within radio range can transmit a frame that presents a length byte above the IEEE 802.15.4 maximum of 127 while the chip's 128-byte RX FIFO has not overflowed, so the driver's RXFIFOERROR pre-check does not fire. Reaching this state depends on RF framing and timing, since the RX thread is driven off the PKTSYNCRXTX signal and may sample the FIFO before a packet is complete; no pairing, authentication, or user interaction is required.

With the default CONFIGNETBUFFIXEDDATASIZE and CONFIGNETBUFDATASIZE=128, an allocation larger than one fragment is satisfied by a chain of fragments, but readrxfifocontent() performs a single SPI burst of pktlen bytes into the first fragment's buf->data and then calls netbufadd() with the same length. A length above 128 therefore writes up to 127 bytes past the end of a fragment in the contiguous rxbufs pool and leaves a netbuf whose len exceeds its capacity. The overflowing bytes are FIFO-underflow output rather than attacker-chosen data, so the practical impact is network-buffer-pool corruption and crashes rather than a controlled write. Only builds that enable CONFIGIEEE802154CC1200 with an attached CC1200 radio are affected.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Zephyr Project Zephyr

Event History

Oct 14, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·04:46 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·04:46 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness

Frequently Asked Questions

1

Which systems are exposed to this issue?

Systems using the Zephyr CC1200 sub-GHz IEEE 802.15.4 driver are exposed when they receive radio traffic. The attacker must be within radio range of the target.

2

Does an attacker need credentials, pairing, or user interaction?

No. Exploitation does not require pairing, authentication, privileges, or user interaction; the attacker sends a crafted over-the-air frame with an oversized packet-length byte.

3

Are default network buffer settings relevant?

Yes. The described default configuration uses CONFIG_NET_BUF_FIXED_DATA_SIZE with CONFIG_NET_BUF_DATA_SIZE set to 128, while the radio-provided length byte can be up to 255. The malformed length can reach packet allocation and the SPI burst read without being clamped to the IEEE 802.15.4 maximum of 127.

4

Is exploitation guaranteed by sending any oversized frame?

No. Reaching the vulnerable state depends on RF framing and timing because the RX thread may sample the FIFO before packet reception is complete. However, the radio's FIFO-overflow pre-check does not necessarily trigger when the supplied length exceeds 127 but the 128-byte RX FIFO has not overflowed.

Contact

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