ZephyrProject Zephyr up to 4.4.1 Management Message Parser subsys/net/lib/ptp/tlv.c tlv_mgmt_post_recv length out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in ZephyrProject Zephyr up to 4.4.1. Affected by this vulnerability is the function tlv_mgmt_post_recv of the file subsys/net/lib/ptp/tlv.c of the component Management Message Parser. This manipulation of the argument length causes out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-13481. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in ZephyrProject Zephyr up to 4.4.1. It has been declared as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function tlv_mgmt_post_recv of the file subsys/net/lib/ptp/tlv.c of the component Management Message Parser. The manipulation of the argument length with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The IEEE 1588 PTP management-message parser in subsys/net/lib/ptp/tlv.c mishandles the PTP_MGMT_TIME management id. In tlv_mgmt_post_recv(), the PTP_MGMT_TIME case casts mgmt_tlv->data to a 10-byte struct ptp_timestamp and reads it (then byte-swaps and writes it back) without first checking that the TLV data field is at least sizeof(struct ptp_timestamp). Every sibling management id in the same switch validates its length first; PTP_MGMT_TIME was the only case lacking that check. The length passed in is the management data size (tlv->length - 2), and the upstream guard in ptp_tlv_post_recv() only requires tlv->length > 2, while msg_tlv_post_recv() validates only that the TLV fits within the received byte count, not a per-id minimum. A peer on the local PTP segment can therefore send a PTP_MSG_MANAGEMENT message carrying a short PTP_MGMT_TIME TLV (data as small as 2 bytes), causing the parser to read and write 8 bytes beyond the validated data. The message type and TLV contents are taken straight off the wire, so the path is reachable by any adjacent attacker when CONFIG_PTP is enabled. The over-read and write-back stay within the struct ptp_msg allocation (mgmt_tlv->data lives in the leading mtu[NET_ETH_MTU] union member, so data + 10 lands at most a few bytes past mtu[], inside the same object), so this is an out-of-bounds read of adjacent in-object memory plus a bounded in-place corruption of the message's parsed timestamp, not past-allocation memory corruption. Impact is limited to minor information exposure of adjacent bytes and corruption of the device's parsed management TIME value; there is no crash on the access and no reachable reference-count corruption. The fix adds if (length < sizeof(struct ptp_timestamp)) { return -EBADMSG; } before the cast, matching the other management-id cases and fully closing the receive-path defect.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-13481 since 06/27/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 4.4.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch de98c3721a0e21ca269313997736f4f6193909ef is able to eliminate this problem.

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Project Management Software

Vendor

• ZephyrProject

Name

• Zephyr

Version

• 4.4.0
• 4.4.1

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Discussion