Medium severity · published Aug 25, 2026
CVE-2026-13215
Zephyr ext2 mount: unvalidated superblock block size causes out-of-bounds write from a crafted filesystem image
6.8
CVSS
0.3%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
The Zephyr ext2 filesystem driver fails to validate the s_log_block_size field of the on-disk superblock when mounting a filesystem. ext2_verify_disk_superblock() in subsys/fs/ext2/ext2_impl.c checks the magic number, revision, inode size and group counts, but never bounds s_log_block_size. On a successful verify, subsys/fs/ext2/ext2_ops.c computes fs->block_size = 1024 << superblock.s_log_block_size from this attacker-controlled uint32_t, so a crafted value either overflows the shift (undefined behaviour) or yields a block size far larger than CONFIG_EXT2_MAX_BLOCK_SIZE.
That block size is then passed to k_mem_slab_init() by ext2_init_blocks_slab() to carve CONFIG_EXT2_MAX_BLOCK_COUNT blocks out of the fixed static buffer __ext2_block_memory_buffer, whose size is CONFIG_EXT2_MAX_BLOCK_COUNT * CONFIG_EXT2_MAX_BLOCK_SIZE. k_mem_slab_init() does not verify that the requested blocks fit the buffer, and the ext2 wrapper discards its return value, so the slab is laid out past the end of the static buffer. The mount immediately reads block-group, bitmap and inode blocks of fs->block_size bytes each into these slab blocks, producing an out-of-bounds write into adjacent static memory on the first block read.
The entire path is gated only by data read from the mounted image, making this reachable by any attacker who can present a crafted ext2 image to a device that mounts it (for example a removable SD card or storage medium). Because the ext2 driver runs in kernel mode, supplying image bytes yields a supervisor-mode memory-corruption primitive, with impact ranging from denial of service to potential code execution.
The fix rejects s_log_block_size values that overflow the shift (greater than 11) or that produce a block size exceeding CONFIG_EXT2_MAX_BLOCK_SIZE, so the block slab can no longer be initialized larger than its backing buffer.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Physical
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.3% · higher than 20% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
ZE
zephyr · zephyrproject
3.5.0 before 4.4.2 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-13215
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-13215
github.com
https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/commit/f270f4bd0e59585da31e1fbaa79c5abf73f1364b
github.com
https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/security/advisories/GHSA-j52j-gfj9-rwjm
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