Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-1681

Memory Safety in Zephyrproject Zephyr ≤ 4.3.0

Published
12 May 2026
Modified
08 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0014 4th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-1681 is a medium-severity Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) vulnerability in Zephyrproject Zephyr. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 4th 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 SC-7 (Boundary Protection) and SI-16 (Memory Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Issuing an ICMP ping via the `net ping` shell command to a device's own IPv4 address causes the network stack to recursively re-enter the input path on the same system work-queue stack. Because the destination is recognized as a local…

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address, both the echo request and the resulting echo reply are processed inline before the current frame returns. The nested input-path frames exceed the work-queue stack and trigger a stack overflow.

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?

Stack overflow triggered via local shell command enables Endpoint DoS via system exploitation.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-5779Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2024-6442Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2024-6137Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2024-6444Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2024-6443Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2023-1901Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2024-6259Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2023-6749Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2023-5055Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr
CVE-2024-8798Same product: Zephyrproject Zephyr

Affected Assets

zephyrproject
zephyr
≤ 4.3.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SC-7 Boundary Protection
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Boundary protection at the network layer can drop or rate-limit ICMP echo requests addressed to the device itself, preventing the recursive input-path re-entry that leads to stack overflow.

prevent

Memory protection mechanisms can enforce stack canaries or guard pages that detect and terminate the excessive recursion before the work-queue stack overflows.

prevent

Prompt application of the vendor patch that fixes the recursive handling of locally-addressed ICMP packets eliminates the root cause of the stack overflow.

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 directly prevent coding errors such as missing recursion limits or termination conditions.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of compute resources can detect excessive consumption caused by uncontrolled recursion.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record uncontrolled recursion flaws before deployment.

PR.IR-04 partial match
prevents

Capacity monitoring and resource provisioning can absorb or limit the impact of runaway recursion.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.

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 in development can detect excessive recursion via static analysis or fuzzing.

prevents

Secure development life cycle requires controls that prevent uncontrolled recursion through design and code review.

prevents

Application security requirements can mandate recursion limits or stack-depth checks.

prevents

Secure system architecture principles include resource-management and input-validation rules that limit recursion.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prohibit or constrain recursive constructs that could exhaust stack or memory.

prevents

Change management can enforce review gates that catch unsafe memory operations before deployment.

References