CVE-2026-5072 ptp: Potential Denial of Service via PTP Interval Shift

Medium 6.5 Published 22 May 2026 Updated 15 Oct 2026

Remote attackers can crash Zephyr RTOS devices by sending crafted PTP messages that trigger undefined behavior via invalid bitwise shifts.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2026-5072?

CVE-2026-5072 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Zephyrproject Zephyr, published on 22 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A bitwise shift vulnerability in Zephyr's PTP subsystem allows a remote attacker to cause undefined behavior and potential system crashes. An attacker sends a crafted PTP_MSG_MANAGEMENT message to set an unvalidated negative log_announce_interval value in the port's data set. When a subsequent PTP_MSG_ANNOUNCE message is processed, port_timer_set_timeout_random computes a timeout as NSEC_PER_SEC >> -log_seconds; if the attacker-supplied value is sufficiently negative (e.g., -127), the shift amount exceeds the 64-bit integer width, triggering undefined behavior in C. This can cause a system crash via a compiler-generated illegal instruction trap on some architectures, or produce an erroneous zero timeout leading to resource starvation loops or other logical errors.

Weakness: CWE-1335

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-5072?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Zephyrproject Zephyr.

How do I fix CVE-2026-5072?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-5072 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Is CVE-2026-5072 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-5072 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Zephyrproject Zephyr vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-3v98-458v-388r.