CVE-2026-40290 | OP-TEE has a Use-After-Free race in FF-A shared-memory teardown

Exp

OP-TEE is a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) designed as companion to a non-secure Linux kernel running on Arm; Cortex-A cores using the TrustZone technology. Starting in version 3.16.0 and prior to 4.11.0, a user-after-free (UAF) race condition exists in the shared memory teardown logic of FF-A within OP-TEE SPMC/SP flows. This only applies when OP-TEE is configured as an SPMC for S-EL0 SPs, that is, with `CFG_SECURE_PARTITION=y`. The function `sp_mem_remove()`, responsible for freeing entries in `smem->receivers` and `smem->regions`, fails to acquire the global `sp_mem_lock` before performing the `free()` operations. Concurrently, other code paths, such as `sp_mem_get_receiver()`, iterate over these same lists without holding a lock, or, like `sp_mem_is_shared()`, iterate while holding the lock but are not serialized against the unprotected `free()` in `sp_mem_remove()`. This creates a cross-thread race where a thread iterating the list can acquire a pointer to an entry (e.g., `struct sp_mem_map_region` or `struct sp_mem_receiver`), and then another thread calls `sp_mem_remove()`, freeing the object. When the first thread resumes and dereferences the pointer, it results in a Use-After-Free vulnerability. Version 4.11.0 fixes the issue.

Published: 2026-06-03 Last update: 2026-06-05 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-40290 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.14%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-40290

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-40290

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.01% 0.14% +0.13%
2 2026-06-04 0.01%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-40290

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-40290

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-40290

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-40290 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (optee-os), 3 status rows across 3 suites (forky, sid, trixie): open 3. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-40290
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-40290 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (optee-os), 5 status rows across 5 suites (jammy, noble, questing, resolute, upstream): needs-triage 3, DNE 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-40290

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-40290

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
trustedfirmware op-tee >= 3.16.0, <= 4.10.0 cpe:2.3:o:trustedfirmware:op-tee:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-40290

cvelogic Threat Intelligence