GHSA-82h2-v4vm-q2g9: User-triggerable kernel NULL-pointer dereference (DoS) in `k_thread_name_copy()` syscall verifier

Published Jul 14, 2026
·
Updated

The CONFIGUSERSPACE verification handler for the kthreadnamecopy() system call (zvrfykthreadnamecopy() in kernel/thread.c) calls kobjectfind() on the caller-supplied thread pointer and then dereferences the returned struct kobject without checking it for NULL. kobjectfind() returns NULL whenever the supplied pointer is not a registered (static or dynamic) kernel object.

The pre-fix guard tested thread == NULL instead of ko == NULL, so an unprivileged user-mode thread that invokes kthreadnamecopy() with any non-NULL but unregistered pointer (e.g. an arbitrary address) passes the NULL test, after which the verifier reads ko->type through a NULL pointer.

Because the syscall verifier runs in supervisor mode, this NULL dereference is a kernel-mode fault that halts or reboots the system, allowing untrusted user code to crash the kernel across the userspace security boundary (denial of service). The marshaller passes the thread argument to the verifier without any prior KSYSCALLOBJ validation, so the bad pointer reaches the defect directly.

The flaw affects builds with CONFIGUSERSPACE and CONFIGTHREADNAME enabled and has been present since the special-case lookup was introduced around v2.0.0; it is present in v4.4.0 and earlier. The fix changes the guard to check the kobjectfind() return value (ko == NULL) before dereferencing it.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Zephyr Project Zephyr RTOS>=2.0.0<=4.4.0

Event History

Jul 14, 2026
CVE Published
via OSV·03:02 PM
Data Sourced
via OSV·03:02 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness

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