Skip to content
statance
MenuClose
medium · CVSS 5.2

CVE-2026-78116

Double free of an RTIO submission in the Broadcom AFBR-S50 sensor driver data-evaluation error path

Published 21 Oct 2026 · Source updated 4 Nov 2026 · Retrieved 2026-11-04 05:38 UTC · This record may be stale; verify the source

Statance checks for CVE-2026-78116. Connected servers are checked automatically against the fixed versions their distribution or package ecosystem has published for it, including app dependency lockfiles. Check my servers ↗
Monitor this CVE ↗Full CVE monitoring on Pro and Business

What happened?

The Broadcom AFBR-S50 time-of-flight sensor driver double-completes an RTIO submission when sensor data evaluation fails. In data_ready_work_handler() (drivers/sensor/broadcom/afbr_s50/afbr_s50.c), a non-STATUS_OK return from Argus_EvaluateData() calls handle_error_on_result(), which finalises the request with rtio_iodev_sqe_err(), but execution then fell through to the tail of the function and finalised the very same struct rtio_iodev_sqe a second time with rtio_iodev_sqe_ok(). Unlike the other error branches in the same function, this one did not return.

Both completion helpers reach rtio_executor_done() in subsys/rtio/rtio_executor.c, which returns the submission to the pool via rtio_sqe_pool_free() and, for streaming (multishot) submissions, also releases the RX buffer with rtio_release_buffer(). The second completion therefore reads a freed rtio_iodev_sqe, pushes the same mpsc node onto the submission queue while it is already on the pool free list — splicing the two lists together — and re-submits the freed request so the next measurement is written through an already-released buffer. For one-shot submissions it emits a spurious success completion carrying stale userdata and frees the same pool entry twice.

The failure branch is driven by sensor conditions rather than by host software. The vendor API documents statuses such as ERROR_ARGUS_BIAS_VOLTAGE_REINIT and ERROR_ARGUS_LASER_MONITOR_INACTIVE as transient results of harsh ambient light, so a party in front of the optical sensor can provoke the invalid-data condition without any physical contact with the board or any software access; SPI transfer errors reach the same branch. In releases before the payload.Status check was dropped, ordinary sharp distance transitions in the sensor's field of view were sufficient.

Impact is corruption of the RTIO submission pool and mempool bookkeeping: aliased submissions, writes through released buffers, and duplicate completions delivered to the application. The attacker does not control the corrupted content, so the practical consequence is memory corruption and loss of availability on devices that instantiate brcm,afbr-s50, rather than directed code execution. Only builds that enable this driver are affected.

Description supplied by CVE Program. Formatting is simplified; follow the original advisory for full details.

Affected software and versions

Source-provided software and version information
SoftwareVersion informationFixed version
zephyrzephyrprojectaffected: 4.3.0 to < 4.3.2; affected: 4.4.0 to < 4.5.0See vendor advisory

Version information comes from the source record and can include unaffected products and exceptions. Distribution packages may contain backported fixes: an older upstream version alone does not prove a server is affected.

Is it being exploited?

This CVE was not listed in the CISA catalogue at our last retrieval. This does not establish that exploitation is absent.

CISA data retrieved 2026-11-06 16:38 UTC. Check CISA ↗

How to respond

  1. Confirm the product, installed package version, and any configuration requirements in the vendor advisory.
  2. Follow the vendor’s remediation or workaround guidance in the references below. Structured fixed-version data is unavailable here; the publisher’s description may include a fix or workaround.
  3. Restart affected services if required, then verify the running version. Known exploitation may warrant investigation as well as patching.

Sources and remediation references

This public advisory does not determine whether a particular server is affected. Records are refreshed as sources change; verify urgent decisions against the original advisory.

← Browse the public CVE feed