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Out-of-bounds read in Zephyr HTTP client debug logging of response header fields

3.7LowCNA
Exploited
No known exploitation
Fix
Fixed in 4.3.2, 4.5.0
Who is exposed
Not reported

Do first: Upgrade to a fixed version: 4.3.2, 4.5.0.

Published
Last modified
21/100 · provisional
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub

Summary

The Zephyr HTTP client has an out-of-bounds read in its debug logging of response header fields. A remote attacker, without logging in, can make a device read past the end of its receive buffer, which can crash or panic the device; only builds with HTTP client debug logging enabled are affected.

Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.

Read the original description

The HTTP client's debug helper print_header_field() in subsys/net/lib/http/http_client.c formatted an http_parser data-callback slice with a %s conversion: snprintk(output, len + 1, "%s", str). The parser hands its callbacks a pointer and a length into the caller's receive buffer, and those bytes are not NUL terminated. The size argument of snprintk() bounds only the destination, while the %s conversion measures the source first — lib/os/cbprintf_complete.c uses strlen() when no precision is given, and lib/os/cbprintf_nano.c uses strlen() unconditionally — so the read walks past the end of the header field and past the end of the receive buffer until it finds a zero byte.

The slice reaches the helper from on_url(), on_header_field() and on_header_value(), which the parser invokes on bytes that http_wait_data() read straight off the socket into the application-supplied recv_buf. A malicious or compromised HTTP server, or an attacker able to answer a plaintext request, therefore controls both the header field and the bytes that follow it in the buffer, and can guarantee that no zero byte appears before the buffer ends, forcing the over-read. The in-tree tests/net/lib/http_client suite reproduces the over-read under CONFIG_ASAN=y on an ordinary GET.

The impact is bounded. The whole helper body is compiled only when the HTTP client log module is explicitly set to Debug (CONFIG_NET_HTTP_LOG_LEVEL_DBG=y, which the global CONFIG_LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL does not set), so default builds are unaffected. No out-of-bounds write occurs and none of the over-read bytes are emitted into the log, so there is no information disclosure; the consequence is an out-of-bounds read that can fault and panic the device where the buffer abuts an unmapped or MPU/MMU-protected region.

The fix copies exactly the len bytes the parser offered with memcpy() and terminates them, instead of relying on a %s conversion (a %.*s precision would not have sufficed, since cbprintf_nano.c measures the source in full before applying it).

cve.now Index

21Pcve.now Index 21 of 100 · methodology v3 · provisional
  • Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
  • Exposure17/25No login or user action needed per the CVSS vector, reachable over the network without a login · Unknown: No advisory context yet
  • Reach?/20Unknown. No tracked technology or package matched
  • Severity3.7/10CVSS 3.7
  • No patch0/5No signal

What would change the score

  • Would score about 66 if added to CISA KEV
  • Would score about 61 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
  • Would score about 26 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed

What to do

  • Upgrade to a fixed version: 4.3.2, 4.5.0.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. First seen by cve.now

Affected versions

  • zephyr

    From 2.1.0 · fixed in 4.3.2; From 4.4.0 · fixed in 4.5.0

Evidence 2

  1. Advisory
  2. Patch

Corrections

None so far.

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Questions about CVE-2026-90588

Is CVE-2026-90588 being exploited?

It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90588?

zephyr: from 2.1.0 before 4.3.2; from 4.4.0 before 4.5.0.Source: cve.now feed data

How do I fix CVE-2026-90588?

Upgrade to a fixed version: 4.3.2, 4.5.0.Source: cve.now feed data