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Vulnerability Analysis
Missing device-pointer validation in flash_copy() syscall allows userspace privilege escalation

CVE-2026-9771

The flash_copy() system call is verified by z_vrfy_flash_copy() in drivers/flash/flash_util.c. On builds with CONFIG_USERSPACE enabled, this handler is the kernel-side trust boundary for a user-mode caller. Prior to the fix it validated only the output buffer (K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_WRITE) and passed the two struct device * arguments, src_dev and dst_dev, directly into the implementation without any object validation — unlike every sibling flash syscall, which guards its device pointer with K_SYSCALL_DRIVER_FLASH. A user-mode thread fully controls the values of src_dev/dst_dev and the contents of its own address space. The implementation z_impl_flash_copy() dereferences these pointers and calls through their driver-API function tables (e.g. api->get_parameters(dst_dev), flash_read(src_dev, ...), flash_write(dst_dev, ...)). By supplying a pointer to a forged struct device whose api table contains attacker-chosen function pointers, an unprivileged thread can cause the kernel to call arbitrary code in supervisor mode; passing any arbitrary or invalid address otherwise yields a kernel crash or out-of-bounds read. The result is a local privilege escalation out of the userspace sandbox (with kernel denial-of-service and information disclosure as lesser outcomes). The fix adds K_SYSCALL_DRIVER_FLASH(src_dev, read) and K_SYSCALL_DRIVER_FLASH(dst_dev, write) to z_vrfy_flash_copy(), which verify each device is a registered flash-driver kernel object the calling thread is permitted to use before any dereference, closing the path completely.

No Active Exploit Signals
CVSS Base Score
8.8
HIGH
Exploitability:2.1
Impact Score:6.1
Temporal Score:-
EPSS:-

Threat Intelligence Signals

CISA KEV
No
KEV Date Added
Ransomware Use
KEV Due Date
VulnCheck In-the-Wild
No
Nuclei Template
No
EPSS Score
EPSS Percentile
GHSA ID
GitHub Severity
SSVC Exploitation
None
SSVC Automatable
No
Vulnerability Class

Identity & Timeline

Status-
Assigning Authority-
CVSS Version / Source-
Reserved-
Published-
Patch Date (date_public)-
Exploit DB Date-
First GitHub PoC Date-
Last Updated-
Time to Patch (Days to fix)-
Exploit Release Gap-
PoC Release Gap-
Exploit DB ReferencesNone identified

Affected Products & Versions

Vendor Product Affected Versions
No affected products specified.

References

No reference links found.

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