CVE-2026-12233 (GCVE-0-2026-12233)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-08-12 03:54 – Updated: 2026-08-12 03:54
VLAI
Title
Uninitialized mutex in TLS trusted-credential backend causes kernel NULL-deref DoS under contention
Summary
The PSA Protected Storage credential backend (subsys/net/lib/tls_credentials/tls_credentials_trusted.c) declared its credential-store mutex as a plain zero-filled static struct k_mutex credential_lock; and never called k_mutex_init() on it. A statically zero-filled k_mutex has an uninitialized wait queue (its dlist head/tail are NULL instead of the self-referential sentinels that k_mutex_init/K_MUTEX_DEFINE install). The uncontended lock path does not touch the wait queue, so the defect is latent and serialized use behaves correctly. When two execution contexts contend on the lock, k_mutex_lock() pends the blocking thread on the wait queue via z_pend_curr(), which calls sys_dlist_append() on the zeroed list and dereferences a NULL tail pointer (tail->next = node), faulting the kernel. The lock is held during TLS handshake credential loading and by all credential add/get/delete operations, so a deployment performing concurrent TLS handshakes (for example a server handling multiple simultaneous connections from a remote peer) or a credential-management operation concurrent with a handshake can trigger the dereference. The impact is a denial of service: a deterministic kernel panic / device reset on the first contention. There is no memory corruption beyond the NULL dereference and no confidentiality or integrity impact; mutual exclusion on the fast path remains correct. Exposure is limited to builds with CONFIG_TLS_CREDENTIALS_BACKEND_PROTECTED_STORAGE enabled (PSA Protected Storage / TF-M platforms); the default volatile RAM backend initializes its lock correctly and is unaffected. The fix initializes the mutex statically with K_MUTEX_DEFINE(credential_lock), providing a valid wait queue so the contended path no longer touches a NULL list.
CWE
Assigner
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
zephyrproject zephyr Affected: 3.2.0 , < 4.4.2 (semver)
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          "url": "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-57c4-xcq2-fqj7"
        }
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    "cveId": "CVE-2026-12233",
    "datePublished": "2026-08-12T03:54:38.100Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-06-15T01:56:02.937Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-08-12T03:54:38.100Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
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  }
}



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