Description

NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in Samsung Open Source mTower allows Pointer Manipulation. This issue affects mTower: before afef59aa6f55c5d5ebf9b14bc020bf1c2c37489a.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "5.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-01T11:16:45.243Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-01T11:16:45.243Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists within the Samsung Open Source mTower project, leading to potential pointer manipulation. This flaw allows an attacker to trigger an invalid memory access, potentially resulting in a denial-of-service or arbitrary code execution depending on the execution environment. The vulnerability impacts all mTower versions released prior to the commit hash afef59aa6f55c5d5ebf9b14bc020bf1c2c37489a. This security defect presents significant risks to the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), as mTower is designed to provide security-critical services. Exploitation typically requires a local or privileged context capable of interacting with the mTower interface. Successful exploitation could lead to system instability, information disclosure, or the bypass of security boundaries enforced by the TEE, undermining the overall integrity of the platform.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability originates from inadequate validation of pointer references before they are dereferenced within the mTower codebase. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the software attempts to access, read, or write to a memory address that has been initialized to zero (NULL) instead of a valid memory allocation. In the context of mTower, this implies that a pointer intended to reference a structure, function, or data buffer is not being properly checked for nullity following an allocation failure or a logic path that bypasses initialization.\nThe attack flow commences when an attacker provides malformed input or triggers a specific code path via the TEE communication interface. If the input causes the internal logic to transition into a state where a pointer remains uninitialized or is explicitly set to NULL, the execution flow proceeds to dereference this pointer. When the processor attempts to fetch instructions or data from the virtual address 0x0, it generates a memory access violation (page fault).\nIn highly privileged environments like a TEE, the handling of such exceptions is critical. If the exception is not caught and handled gracefully, the system may crash, leading to a denial-of-service condition. Furthermore, if the memory mapping at 0x0 is not properly protected by the Memory Management Unit (MMU) or if an attacker can map controlled data at the base address, they may be able to redirect execution flow. By manipulating the pointer, an attacker might achieve arbitrary memory access, potentially enabling them to hijack control flow by overwriting sensitive function pointers or return addresses stored in memory.\nThe affected component is the internal pointer management logic within mTower prior to commit afef59aa6f55c5d5ebf9b14bc020bf1c2c37489a. Because mTower operates at a low level, this vulnerability bypasses standard user-space protections, making the exploitation of this memory safety issue particularly dangerous. The lack of prior NULL-check sanitization allows for reliable triggering of the fault, provided the attacker can influence the state machine of the mTower service through its documented or undocumented API endpoints. Post-exploitation, an attacker could escalate privileges within the TEE or facilitate unauthorized access to hardware-backed secrets, depending on the memory layout and the presence of exploit mitigation features like ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) within the TEE environment."
}