CVE-2026-101185 in HarmonyOS
Summary
by MITRE • 11/02/2026
OOB read vulnerability in the peripheral module. Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may affect service confidentiality.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/02/2026
The identified vulnerability represents an out-of-bounds (OOB) read condition located within a system's peripheral management module, specifically affecting how data is retrieved from hardware interfaces or memory-mapped input/output regions. This type of flaw typically arises when the software fails to properly validate access boundaries before performing a read operation on external peripherals such as serial ports, network controllers, or specialized accelerators. In many embedded and IoT architectures, these peripheral modules often expose sensitive configuration registers, cryptographic keys, or internal state information that is not intended for general application-level consumption. When an attacker can trigger this OOB read, they are able to access memory locations adjacent to the intended target buffer, potentially revealing data structures that reside in higher privilege levels or protected regions of the system's address space.
From a technical perspective, the root cause lies in insufficient boundary checks during pointer arithmetic or array indexing operations within the peripheral driver code. If the index used to select specific register offsets is derived from untrusted input without rigorous validation against the maximum allowable size of the peripheral's memory map, the read operation may spill over into adjacent memory segments. This behavior violates fundamental principles of safe memory access and can lead to information leakage where sensitive data such as encryption keys, session tokens, or internal system configurations are exposed in plaintext form through side channels or direct memory dumps. The impact is primarily categorized under confidentiality breaches because the primary consequence is unauthorized disclosure rather than integrity modification or availability disruption.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure; it can serve as a critical stepping stone for more severe attacks such as privilege escalation or remote code execution if combined with other weaknesses like use-after-free conditions in subsequent processing stages. Attackers may leverage the leaked information to craft targeted exploits against specific services running on the device, bypassing security controls that rely on secret values being kept confidential. For instance, exposure of a hardware random number generator seed could compromise all cryptographic sessions established by the device, while leakage of memory layout details can facilitate return-oriented programming attacks. This aligns with common attack patterns observed in industrial control systems and consumer electronics where peripheral access is often less restricted than main system memory due to performance optimization assumptions.
In terms of industry standards classification, this vulnerability maps directly to CWE-125 Out-of-bounds Read within the Common Weakness Enumeration framework, which describes situations where a read operation accesses data outside the bounds of the intended buffer or array. Furthermore, from an offensive security perspective such as MITRE ATT&CK, this behavior correlates with techniques involving Memory Dumping and potentially Data from Information Repositories if the peripheral module interfaces with internal storage mechanisms. The exploitation path often involves crafting specific IOCTL requests or memory-mapped file operations that trigger the flawed read logic within the kernel space driver handling the peripheral hardware.
Mitigation strategies must focus on implementing strict input validation at every layer of abstraction interacting with the peripheral module. Developers should enforce bounds checking for all indices and offsets used to access register maps, ensuring they do not exceed predefined limits established by the hardware specification. Additionally, adopting memory-safe programming practices or using static analysis tools capable of detecting buffer overflows during the development phase can prevent such flaws from reaching production environments. Runtime protection mechanisms like Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) may mitigate exploitation but do not address the root cause; therefore, code-level fixes remain essential. Regular security audits focusing on low-level system components and peripheral drivers are recommended to identify similar patterns across the firmware or operating system kernel.