CVE-2026-19936
Received Received - Intake

Bluetooth Mesh Delayable Message Queue Race Condition

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-19936, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-10-13

Last updated on: 2026-10-13

Assigner: Zephyr Project

Description

The Bluetooth Mesh Access-layer delayable message queue in subsys/bluetooth/mesh/delayable_msg.c shares three intrusive lists (busy_ctx, free_ctx, free_chunks) and one k_work_delayable between two cooperative threads with no synchronization: bt_mesh_delayable_msg_manage() runs on the Bluetooth host RX thread, while delayable_msg_handler() runs on the system workqueue. Both block while the lists are in an intermediate state β€” the enqueuer in bt_rand(), both in bt_mesh_access_send() β€” which lets the other context observe torn state. delayable_msg_handler() used the result of sys_slist_get() on busy_ctx without a NULL check, and allocate_delayable_msg_ctx() tested sys_slist_is_empty() and then assumed a separate sys_slist_get() would succeed. Because CONFIG_BT_MESH_ACCESS_DELAYABLE_MSG and CONFIG_BT_MESH_ACCESS_DELAYABLE_MSG_CTX_ENABLED default to y, every model response to a received mesh message is parked on this queue, so the enqueuer runs as a direct consequence of inbound traffic. A peer that can get access-layer messages accepted by a model (it must hold the NetKey and a bound AppKey, so a legitimate or compromised network member) controls the arrival rate, the size of the elicited responses and the destination address, and thereby controls occupancy of the 4-entry context pool and the 40-entry chunk pool. Exhausting the chunk pool forces bt_mesh_delayable_msg_manage() down the purge path, which sends and releases the only queued message and leaves busy_ctx empty while the delayable work item is still armed; if the enqueuer then yields, the handler runs against the empty list. The result is a read-modify-write through a NULL-based pointer (pending_msg->fired_time += 10) at a fixed low address on the system workqueue thread. On typical targets that faults, aborting the system workqueue thread β€” which stops all workqueue-driven functionality, including the mesh timing machinery β€” or resetting the node, so the impact is loss of availability of the affected node. The write value and address are fixed and no attacker-controlled length or index is involved, so this is not exploitable for memory corruption or code execution. The same unsynchronized window also allowed one message context to be selected and released by two contexts at once, producing duplicated transmissions, duplicated send-completion callbacks and crossed chunk ownership. The fix serializes every list mutation with a k_spinlock that is never held across a blocking call, makes push_msg_from_delayable_msgs() detach the queue head atomically so a message being sent is on no list, removes the unchecked sys_slist_get() from delayable_msg_handler(), and drops any message that reaches the front of the queue while the stack is suspended or reset.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-10-13
Last Modified
2026-10-13
Generated
2026-10-13
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
zephyrproject zephyr 3.6.0

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-362 The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.

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