Missing user-space pointer validation in logging syscall z_log_msg_static_create allows kernel memory disclosure and denial of service

Summary

The user-space system-call verifier z_vrfy_z_log_msg_static_create() in subsys/logging/log_msg.c was a pure pass-through: it forwarded the caller-supplied source, desc, package, and data arguments directly to the kernel-mode implementation z_impl_z_log_msg_static_create() without performing any of the mandatory K_SYSCALL_* checks. Because z_log_msg_static_create() is declared __syscall, under CONFIG_USERSPACE any unprivileged user-mode thread can invoke it directly with fully attacker-controlled arguments. The kernel-mode handler dereferences each of these untrusted values: frontend_runtime_filtering() reads through the source pointer as a struct log_source_dynamic_data, cbprintf_package_copy() reads desc.package_len bytes from the package pointer, and z_log_msg_finalize() performs a memcpy() of desc.data_len bytes from the data pointer. With no verification, a user thread can supply arbitrary kernel addresses and arbitrary lengths, and the kernel will read from them. The impact is a kernel-mode denial of service (the kernel faults dereferencing an attacker-chosen pointer) and, where a log backend output is observable to the attacker, disclosure of arbitrary kernel memory copied into the emitted log message — a confidentiality breach across the user/kernel boundary that the userspace sandbox is meant to enforce. The reads do not corrupt kernel memory, so there is no out-of-bounds write primitive. The fix adds the required validation to the verifier: it bounds desc.package_len against Z_LOG_MSG_MAX_PACKAGE, rejects non-NULL/length mismatches, and applies K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_READ() to package, data, and (when runtime filtering with a frontend is enabled) source, so any out-of-bounds or kernel pointer now raises K_OOPS instead of being honored.

Timeline

1. Aug 14, 2026, 5:52 PM UTCCVE published
2. Aug 14, 2026, 7:23 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Aug 14, 2026, 7:23 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• zephyr

  From 2.6.0 · fixed in 4.4.2

References 2