Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-10593

Memory Safety in Zephyrproject Zephyr 4.3.0 – 4.4.1

Public PoCMemory Safety
Published
28 June 2026
Modified
14 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0028 20th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-10593 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Zephyrproject Zephyr. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 20th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-16 (Memory Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The Zephyr Bluetooth LE Audio Basic Audio Profile (BAP) unicast client mishandles peer-supplied ASE state notifications. In unicast_client_ep_qos_state() (subsys/bluetooth/audio/bap_unicast_client.c), the handler writes attacker-controlled QoS fields (interval, framing, phy, sdu, rtn, latency, pd) through the stream->qos pointer with only a stream…

more

!= NULL guard. stream->qos is NULL for any stream that has been codec-configured via bt_bap_stream_config() but not yet added to a unicast group (it is set only by unicast_group_add_stream()). A malicious or buggy remote ASCS server, to which the local device is connected as a BAP unicast client, can send a GATT notification announcing the ASE has entered the QoS Configured state while the local endpoint is still in the Codec Configured state — a transition the dispatcher explicitly permits — during that window, causing a write through a NULL pointer and a crash (denial of service). The data written is itself remote-controlled. The defect shipped in v4.3.0 and v4.4.0 (and earlier). The fix re-points all BAP QoS storage to the always-valid embedded ep->qos struct, eliminating the NULL dereference.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
Why these techniques?

NULL dereference crash triggered by malicious remote ASE QoS notification in Bluetooth BAP unicast client directly enables application-layer DoS via crafted protocol messages.

Confidence: MEDIUM · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-10648Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10656Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-5590Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-13351Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10637Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10640Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10651Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10668Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10655Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2026-10657Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr

Affected Assets

zephyrproject
zephyr
4.3.0 — 4.4.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • SI-4 System Monitoring
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly requires validation of untrusted ASE state notifications and QoS parameters before any write through stream->qos, blocking the NULL dereference path.

prevent

Enforces memory protection that would detect or block the invalid write through a NULL pointer on attacker-controlled QoS data.

detect

Enables monitoring of Bluetooth audio endpoint state transitions and memory faults to identify the anomalous QoS notification that triggers the crash.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

detects

Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

References