Out-of-bounds read in PTP management TLV TIME parsing in Zephyr net PTP
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-13481 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | zephyr |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-08-26 15:16:42 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-08-26 16:59:23 UTC |
| Description | 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. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.4 MEDIUM from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Problem Types: CWE-125 | CWE-125 bounds
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 5.4 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| 3.1 | CNA | CVSS | 5.4 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
AdjacentAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
LowIntegrity
LowAvailability
NoneCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Zephyrproject | Zephyr | affected 3.7.0 4.4.2 semver | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/de98c3721a0e21ca269313997736... | [email protected] | github.com | |
| github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-mh5r-jxh8-... | [email protected] | github.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.