CVE-2026-17051
Received Received - Intake

Buffer Overflow in Intel SEDI IPM Driver

Publication date: 2026-09-21

Last updated on: 2026-09-21

Assigner: Zephyr Project

Description
The Intel SEDI IPM (inter-processor mailbox) driver in drivers/ipm/ipm_sedi.c handles an inbound message interrupt in ipm_event_dispose(). It read the peer-written doorbell register, extracted the payload length with IPC_HEADER_GET_LENGTH(), and passed that length straight to sedi_ipc_read_msg() to copy the message into struct ipm_sedi_context.incoming_data_buf, without checking it against the buffer size. The doorbell length field is 10 bits wide (IPC_HEADER_LENGTH_MASK is 0x03FF), so it can encode up to 1023 bytes, while incoming_data_buf is IPC_DATA_LEN_MAX (128) bytes. The bounds check in the underlying HAL sedi_ipc_read_msg() is a DBG_CHECK that compiles away unless CONFIG_DEBUG is set, so no check remained in a production image. The doorbell register is written by the peer processor on the other side of the IPC link — for the intel_ish_5_* targets, the host CPU's ISH driver, reached through the device's memory-mapped register window. Host-side software with driver-level or raw BAR access can therefore set a length of up to 1023 and cause the interrupt handler to copy far past the destination buffer. The affected path requires an application to have registered an IPM receive callback via ipm_register_callback(), which is the driver's normal mode of use. The result is an out-of-bounds write of up to 895 bytes into static (.bss) memory, performed in interrupt context. The overflow first clobbers the rest of struct ipm_sedi_context — including the k_sem and k_mutex used by the transmit path, whose wait queues contain self-referential list pointers — and then adjacent static data, giving a kernel data-structure corruption and crash primitive. The overflowing bytes are read from registers following the message window, a portion of which are themselves peer-programmable. The fix rejects any doorbell whose encoded length exceeds IPC_DATA_LEN_MAX, logging it and acknowledging the doorbell so the peer is not left waiting.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-09-21
Last Modified
2026-09-21
Generated
2026-09-21
AI Q&A
2026-09-21
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-17051
EUVD
EUVD-2026-84013

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 3 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
intel sedi_ipm From 3.5.0 (inc) to 4.4.1 (inc)
zephyrproject zephyr 4.4.2
intel sed_ipm_driver to 1024 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-787 The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an out-of-bounds write in the Intel SEDI IPM driver for Zephyr RTOS. The driver's interrupt handler reads a peer-written doorbell register, extracts a payload length, and copies the message into a fixed 128-byte buffer without validating the length. The doorbell length field can encode up to 1023 bytes, causing an overflow of up to 895 bytes into adjacent kernel memory. This corrupts data structures like semaphores and mutexes, leading to kernel crashes.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is specific to the Intel SEDI IPM driver in Zephyr RTOS and requires access to the affected system's kernel logs or driver behavior. Check for kernel crashes, memory corruption errors, or unexpected behavior in inter-processor communication (IPC) operations. Review logs for messages indicating malformed IPC messages or buffer overflows.

Impact Analysis

An attacker with driver-level or raw BAR access to the host CPU's ISH driver can exploit this to cause kernel data-structure corruption and crashes. The overflow corrupts critical kernel components like semaphores and mutexes, potentially leading to system instability or denial of service.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could potentially impact compliance with GDPR and HIPAA by enabling unauthorized memory corruption in kernel data structures. An attacker could exploit this to crash the system or manipulate kernel components, which may lead to data integrity issues or unauthorized access to sensitive information. Such disruptions could violate requirements for data protection and system availability in these regulations.

Mitigation Strategies
  • Update the Zephyr RTOS to version 4.4.2 or later, which includes the fix for this vulnerability.
  • Ensure CONFIG_DEBUG is enabled in production builds to retain bounds checks in sedi_ipc_read_msg().
  • Restrict access to the host CPU's ISH driver memory-mapped registers to prevent unauthorized manipulation of the doorbell register.

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