{"id":"CVE-2026-76787","title":"NULL pointer dereference in the UpdateHub FOTA client when probe metadata omits sha256sum","summary":"The UpdateHub firmware-over-the-air client parses the CoAP probe response with Zephyr's JSON library in z_impl_updatehub_probe() (subsys/mgmt/updatehub/updatehub.c). The decoder treats every descriptor field as optional — json_obj_parse(…","severity":"medium","cvss":5.9,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","cvssSource":"cna","cwe":["CWE-476"],"vendor":"zephyrproject","product":"zephyr","affected":["zephyr >= 2.4.0 < 4.5.0"],"published":"2026-10-19","updated":"2026-10-19","sourceUpdated":"2026-10-19T20:39:20.425Z","source":"CVEORG","sourceUrl":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-76787","references":[{"url":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/6fc4f27a74021b52c509e4f7912d68145dfa7728","label":"Fix commit"},{"url":"https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-82gq-cmqw-xgx2","label":"GHSA-82gq-cmqw-xgx2"}],"tags":["cve.org"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-19T21:43:56.154Z","slug":"CVE-2026-76787","body":"## Overview\n\nThe UpdateHub firmware-over-the-air client parses the CoAP probe response with Zephyr's JSON library in z_impl_updatehub_probe() (subsys/mgmt/updatehub/updatehub.c). The decoder treats every descriptor field as optional — json_obj_parse() returns a bitmask of the fields it actually decoded and never fails on a missing one — so a response that omits the \"sha256sum\" string leaves the corresponding const char * in the zero-initialised struct resp_probe_any_boards / struct resp_probe_some_boards at NULL. Both metadata branches then computed sha256size = strlen(...objects.sha256sum) + 1 before any validation, dereferencing that NULL pointer; the SHA256_HEX_DIGEST_SIZE test that follows operates on a value the bad read has already produced and cannot prevent it.\n\nThe metadata is supplied entirely by the network peer: probe_cb() accepts the datagram, runs coap_packet_parse() and copies the payload with no token matching and no cryptographic check. With CONFIG_UPDATEHUB_DTLS unset — the default — start_coap_client() uses plain CoAP over UDP on port 5683 with no peer authentication and resolves the server via unauthenticated DNS, so an on-path attacker, a DNS spoofer, or an off-path attacker who wins the race with a forged source address can deliver the malformed metadata. A probe response as simple as \"objects\":[[{}],[{}]] suffices, and no user interaction is required because updatehub_autohandler() polls on CONFIG_UPDATEHUB_POLL_INTERVAL. When CONFIG_UPDATEHUB_DTLS=y the trigger narrows to a malicious or compromised update server.\n\nThe primitive is a read at address zero, not a write, so the impact is availability only. On targets where the low address range is unmapped or protected — MMU-based architectures, builds with CONFIG_NULL_POINTER_EXCEPTION_DETECTION_DWT/_MPU/_PMP, TrustZone non-secure images, and SoCs such as nRF54L whose 0x0–0x400 window is unmapped — the load faults and Zephyr's default fatal handler halts the system, giving a remotely re-triggerable denial of service on every poll. On classic Cortex-M targets where the vector table is readable at address zero the walk usually terminates immediately and the request is rejected by the length check, so the outcome is configuration- and SoC-dependent. There is no memory write, and the copied bytes are only compared against the locally computed image hash, so there is no information-disclosure channel.\n\nThe fix adds an explicit sha256sum == NULL test that returns UPDATEHUB_METADATA_ERROR ahead of the strlen() in both metadata branches. Debug builds (CONFIG_UPDATEHUB_LOG_LEVEL=4) still format the same pointers with %s in a LOG_DBG() loop that runs before the new checks, so that variant remains in debug configurations only.\n\n## Affected\n\n- `zephyr >= 2.4.0 < 4.5.0`\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":32,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":32.5,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}