The Nuvoton NuMaker HSUSBD USB device-controller driver (drivers/usb/udc/udc_numaker.c) armed the control Data IN stage unconditionally (base->CEPTXCNT = len in numaker_hsusbd_ep_trigger). Because the HSUSBD hardware cannot disarm a control Data IN already armed for a previous transfer, a USB host that cancels an in-flight control transfer (timeout) and then issues a new SETUP packet can drive the driver out of sync: stale data may be transmitted in the new transfer and the control endpoint can become permanently stuck NAK'ing every subsequent control transfer. A malicious or buggy host (physical/adjacent attacker driving the bus) can repeatedly cancel-and-re-SETUP to wedge the device's USB control endpoint, denying service to the device's USB function (the device stops enumerating/responding on the control pipe) until a USB reset or re-plug. The flaw is an availability-only denial of service; the FIFO copy loops (bounded by net_buf length and the hardware BUFFULL flag) and the net_buf lifecycle are independent of the arming desync, so there is no out-of-bounds access, use-after-free, or information leak. The fix monitors the IN-token and new-SETUP events (k_event) and only arms control Data IN when an IN token is present and no new SETUP has arrived, cancelling the current transfer on a new SETUP. Affects boards using the Nuvoton NuMaker HSUSBD controller (CONFIG_UDC_NUMAKER with DT_HAS_NUVOTON_NUMAKER_HSUSBD_ENABLED); shipped in v4.4.0.

The Zephyr PL011 UART driver (drivers/serial/uart_pl011.c) contains an unbounded software loop in pl011_irq_tx_enable() that repeatedly invokes the interrupt-driven application callback while the TX interrupt mask bit (PL011_IMSC_TXIM) is set, to work around the controller's level-transition TX-interrupt behavior. When CTS hardware flow control is enabled (devicetree hw-flow-control or runtime UART_CFG_FLOW_CTRL_RTS_CTS) and the wired serial peer de-asserts CTS, the controller stops draining the TX FIFO; pl011_fifo_fill() then returns 0 on every call while the application still has pending data and therefore never disables the TX interrupt. The loop condition never clears, so the thread that called uart_irq_tx_enable() (e.g. h4_send() in the Bluetooth HCI H4 driver) spins indefinitely, hanging the executing context and stalling the transport — a denial of service (CWE-835). An attacker controlling the device attached to the UART's CTS line can trigger the hang by withholding CTS during transmission. Because that peer is the device wired to the UART — which may be a removable or external module (e.g. an off-board Bluetooth controller on the HCI H4 link) rather than a permanently-bonded on-PCB part — the attack vector is scored Adjacent (AV:A) rather than Physical; the security subcommittee should confirm the vector against the specific deployment. Impact is availability only; there is no memory-safety, confidentiality, or integrity consequence. The vulnerable loop was introduced in commit b783bc8448ef (Feb 2025) and shipped in releases v4.1.0 through v4.4.0. The fix breaks out of the loop when CTS is blocking and arms the CTS modem-status interrupt to resume transmission when CTS re-asserts.

mcumgr_serial_process_frag() in subsys/mgmt/mcumgr/transport/src/serial_util.c calls net_buf_reset() on the result of smp_packet_alloc() before checking it for NULL. smp_packet_alloc() uses net_buf_alloc(K_NO_WAIT) against the shared MCUmgr packet pool (CONFIG_MCUMGR_TRANSPORT_NETBUF_COUNT, default 4), which returns NULL when the pool is exhausted. In default builds the __ASSERT_NO_MSG in net_buf_reset is a no-op, so net_buf_simple_reset writes through the NULL pointer (buf->len = 0; buf->data = buf->__buf), causing a fault/crash. The fragment data reaches this code from attacker-controlled bytes on the MCUmgr serial/UART/shell-console transports (smp_uart.c, smp_raw_uart.c, smp_shell.c), and a fresh buffer is allocated at the start of essentially every new packet. An attacker on the serial/console link can flood the transport to drive the 4-entry buffer pool to exhaustion and induce the NULL dereference, crashing the device (denial of service). The defect was introduced after the original MCUmgr rework and shipped in Zephyr v4.4.0. The fix moves the NULL check ahead of net_buf_reset.

The Zephyr Bluetooth LE Audio Basic Audio Profile (BAP) unicast client mishandles peer-supplied ASE state notifications. In unicast_client_ep_qos_state() (subsys/bluetooth/audio/bap_unicast_client.c), the handler writes attacker-controlled QoS fields (interval, framing, phy, sdu, rtn, latency, pd) through the stream->qos pointer with only a stream != NULL guard. stream->qos is NULL for any stream that has been codec-configured via bt_bap_stream_config() but not yet added to a unicast group (it is set only by unicast_group_add_stream()). A malicious or buggy remote ASCS server, to which the local device is connected as a BAP unicast client, can send a GATT notification announcing the ASE has entered the QoS Configured state while the local endpoint is still in the Codec Configured state — a transition the dispatcher explicitly permits — during that window, causing a write through a NULL pointer and a crash (denial of service). The data written is itself remote-controlled. The defect shipped in v4.3.0 and v4.4.0 (and earlier). The fix re-points all BAP QoS storage to the always-valid embedded ep->qos struct, eliminating the NULL dereference.

The Dhara flash translation layer disk driver (drivers/disk/ftl_dhara.c) implemented the dhara_nand_ callbacks so that, on a flash error, the error code was written unconditionally through the caller-supplied dhara_error_t err pointer (e.g. *err = DHARA_E_ECC in dhara_nand_read, and similar in dhara_nand_erase/prog/copy). The upstream Dhara library calls these callbacks with err == NULL along its journal-resume binary search: find_last_checkblock() invokes find_checkblock(j, mid, &found, NULL), which forwards the NULL pointer into dhara_nand_read(). This path runs during disk_ftl_access_init() -> dhara_map_resume() whenever the FTL disk is mounted/initialised. If a flash read error (uncorrectable ECC, bad block, controller error) occurs on one of the probed checkpoint pages, the driver dereferences and writes to NULL, faulting the kernel (denial of service). The trigger is conditioned on the NAND medium content/health, which can be influenced by media wear, induced faults, or a corrupted/crafted on-flash image. The fix routes all error assignments through the library's NULL-safe dhara_set_error() helper. Affects Zephyr v4.4.0, where the driver was introduced.

zephyr-rtos version 1.12.0 contains a NULL base pointer reference vulnerability in sys_ring_buf_put(), sys_ring_buf_get() that can result in CPU Page Fault (error code 0x00000010). This attack appear to be exploitable via a malicious application call the vulnerable kernel APIs (system sys_ring_buf_get() and sys_ring_buf_put).

At the most basic level, an invalid pointer can be input that crashes the device, but with more knowledge of the device’s memory layout, further exploitation is possible.

A race condition during TCP connection teardown can cause tcp_recv() to operate on a connection that has already been released. If tcp_conn_search() returns NULL while processing a SYN packet, a NULL pointer derived from stale context data is passed to tcp_backlog_is_full() and dereferenced without validation, leading to a crash.

A missing nullptr-check in handle_ra_input can cause a nullptr-deref.

DOS: Incorrect 802154 Frame Validation for Omitted Source / Dest Addresses. Zephyr versions >= > v2.4.0 contain NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476), Attempt to Access Child of a Non-structure Pointer (CWE-588). For more information, see https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-94jg-2p6q-5364

Unexpected Pointer Aliasing in IEEE 802154 Fragment Reassembly in Zephyr. Zephyr versions >= >=2.4.0 contain NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476). For more information, see https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-p86r-gc4r-4mq3

Type Confusion in 802154 ACK Frames Handling. Zephyr versions >= v2.4.0 contain NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476). For more information, see https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-27r3-rxch-2hm7

A malicious BLE device can send a specific order of packet sequence to cause a DoS attack on the victim BLE device

The CONFIG_USERSPACE verification handler for the k_thread_name_copy() system call (z_vrfy_k_thread_name_copy() in kernel/thread.c) calls k_object_find() on the caller-supplied thread pointer and then dereferences the returned struct k_object without checking it for NULL. k_object_find() returns NULL whenever the supplied pointer is not a registered (static or dynamic) kernel object. The pre-fix guard tested thread == NULL instead of ko == NULL, so an unprivileged user-mode thread that invokes k_thread_name_copy() with any non-NULL but unregistered pointer (e.g. an arbitrary address) passes the NULL test, after which the verifier reads ko->type through a NULL pointer. Because the syscall verifier runs in supervisor mode, this NULL dereference is a kernel-mode fault that halts or reboots the system, allowing untrusted user code to crash the kernel across the userspace security boundary (denial of service). The marshaller passes the thread argument to the verifier without any prior K_SYSCALL_OBJ validation, so the bad pointer reaches the defect directly. The flaw affects builds with CONFIG_USERSPACE and CONFIG_THREAD_NAME enabled and has been present since the special-case lookup was introduced around v2.0.0; it is present in v4.4.0 and earlier. The fix changes the guard to check the k_object_find() return value (ko == NULL) before dereferencing it.

Incorrect Error Handling in Bluetooth HCI core. Zephyr versions >= v1.14.2, >= v2.2.0 contain NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476). For more information, see https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-gc66-xfrc-24qr

The treo_attach function in drivers/usb/serial/visor.c in the Linux kernel before 4.5 allows physically proximate attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact by inserting a USB device that lacks a (1) bulk-in or (2) interrupt-in endpoint.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ALSA: usx2y: us144mkii: fix NULL deref on missing interface 0 A malicious USB device with the TASCAM US-144MKII device id can have a configuration containing bInterfaceNumber=1 but no interface 0. USB configuration descriptors are not required to assign interface numbers sequentially, so usb_ifnum_to_if(dev, 0) returns will NULL, which will then be dereferenced directly. Fix this up by checking the return value properly.

The aiptek_probe function in drivers/input/tablet/aiptek.c in the Linux kernel before 4.4 allows physically proximate attackers to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) via a crafted USB device that lacks endpoints.

An issue was discovered in drivers/usb/gadget/composite.c in the Linux kernel before 5.16.10. The USB Gadget subsystem lacks certain validation of interface OS descriptor requests (ones with a large array index and ones associated with NULL function pointer retrieval). Memory corruption might occur.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: comedi: ni_usb6501: fix NULL-deref in command paths The driver uses endpoint-sized USB transfer buffers but had no sanity checks on the sizes. This can lead to zero-size-pointer dereferences or overflowed transfer buffers in ni6501_port_command() and ni6501_counter_command() if a (malicious) device has smaller max-packet sizes than expected (or when doing descriptor fuzz testing). Add the missing sanity checks to probe().

pam_usb provides hardware authentication for Linux using ordinary removable media. Prior to 0.8.7, src/device.c passed the return values of udisks_drive_get_serial(), udisks_drive_get_vendor(), and udisks_drive_get_model() directly to strcmp() without NULL checks. The GIO/UDisks API documentation states these accessors can return NULL for devices that do not expose the corresponding field. Passing NULL to strcmp() is undefined behaviour (typically a SIGSEGV). This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.7.

An issue was discovered in Mercedes Benz NTG (New Telematics Generation) 6 through 2021. A possible NULL pointer dereference in the Apple Car Play function affects NTG 6 head units. To perform this attack, physical access to Ethernet pins of the head unit base board is needed. With a static IP address, an attacker can connect via the internal network to the AirTunes / AirPlay service. With prepared HTTP requests, an attacker can cause the Car Play service to fail.

drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath6kl/usb.c in the Linux kernel through 5.2.9 has a NULL pointer dereference via an incomplete address in an endpoint descriptor.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.1.8. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the sound/usb/line6/driver.c driver.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.2.3. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the drivers/media/usb/zr364xx/zr364xx.c driver.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.0.14. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the drivers/usb/misc/yurex.c driver.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.2.8. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the sound/usb/helper.c (motu_microbookii) driver.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.1.17. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the sound/usb/line6/pcm.c driver.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.1.8. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the drivers/media/usb/siano/smsusb.c driver.

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.1.8. There is a NULL pointer dereference caused by a malicious USB device in the drivers/usb/misc/sisusbvga/sisusb.c driver.