{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.2","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2026-16513","assignerOrgId":"e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad","state":"PUBLISHED","assignerShortName":"zephyr","dateReserved":"2026-07-21T21:42:58.503Z","datePublished":"2026-09-28T19:59:57.736Z","dateUpdated":"2026-09-30T20:11:11.980Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"providerMetadata":{"orgId":"e2e69745-5e70-4e92-8431-deb5529a81ad","shortName":"zephyr","dateUpdated":"2026-09-28T19:59:57.736Z"},"title":"Missing write validation of user-supplied handle pointer in the RTIO syscall verifier allows arbitrary kernel write","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"The userspace verifier z_vrfy_rtio_sqe_copy_in_get_handles() in subsys/rtio/rtio_syscalls.c (subsys/rtio/rtio_handlers.c before v4.3.0) validated the RTIO object handle and the sqes input array, but not the handle out-parameter. On the first loop iteration it executed *handle = sqe, storing the kernel address of the newly acquired submission-queue entry through a pointer taken verbatim from user mode, with no K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_WRITE check in front of it.\n\nAny user-mode thread that has been granted a struct rtio kernel object can invoke the syscall with an arbitrary address in handle. That is the ordinary way an unprivileged thread uses the RTIO API, for example via sensor_read_async_mempool() or the async ADC helpers, which call rtio_sqe_copy_in_get_handles() internally. The store happens in supervisor mode before any submission-entry validation, so it fires regardless of whether the SQE contents are subsequently rejected. Only builds with CONFIG_USERSPACE and CONFIG_RTIO are affected; without CONFIG_USERSPACE the verifier is not compiled and the caller is already privileged.\n\nThe write address is fully attacker-chosen and the written value is a pointer into the caller's own RTIO ring, whose contents the caller controls (the following *sqe = sqes[i] copies an attacker-supplied struct rtio_sqe into that slot). This yields a write-what-where primitive placing a pointer to attacker-controlled data at any kernel address, sufficient to corrupt kernel function pointers, thread structures, or memory-domain partition tables, and thus to escalate from user mode to kernel mode, defeating the isolation boundary CONFIG_USERSPACE is meant to enforce. At minimum it is a reliable kernel memory-corruption and crash primitive. The reporter reproduced the write on qemu_x86: a K_USER thread changed a supervisor global from NULL to a live kernel SQE pointer.\n\nThe fix adds K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_WRITE(handle, sizeof(*handle)) (guarded by the existing optional-NULL semantics) before the loop, so the destination must lie in the calling thread's writable memory domain or the thread is terminated by K_OOPS. The neighbouring verifier z_vrfy_rtio_cqe_get_mempool_buffer(), which checked its buff/buff_len out-parameters only for read although the implementation writes through them, was hardened separately by bea93400138 (\"rtio: syscalls: validate output params as writable\"); that residual was materially weaker, since a read check still confines the target to the caller's own memory domain."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"zephyrproject","product":"zephyr","collectionURL":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr","packageName":"zephyr","defaultStatus":"unaffected","programFiles":["subsys/rtio/rtio_syscalls.c"],"programRoutines":[{"name":"rtio_sqe_copy_in_get_handles"},{"name":"z_vrfy_rtio_sqe_copy_in_get_handles"}],"versions":[{"version":"3.4.0","status":"affected","versionType":"semver","lessThan":"4.4.2"}]}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/95c355c425763fbe5e735b9ef54dacce2c4ce21f","name":"Fix commit","tags":["patch"]},{"url":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-fwmc-q8qg-jcxq","name":"GHSA-fwmc-q8qg-jcxq"}],"metrics":[{"format":"CVSS","cvssV3_1":{"version":"3.1","vectorString":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","baseScore":7.8,"baseSeverity":"HIGH"}}],"problemTypes":[{"descriptions":[{"lang":"en","description":"memory-safety","cweId":"CWE-787","type":"CWE"}]}],"x_generator":{"engine":"cvelib 1.8.0"}},"adp":[{"metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"id":"CVE-2026-16513","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"no"},{"Technical Impact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-09-30T19:45:44.911882Z"}}}],"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","providerMetadata":{"orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","shortName":"CISA-ADP","dateUpdated":"2026-09-30T20:11:11.980Z"}}]}}