CVE-2026-10667

Zephyr's dynamic kernel-object tracking (kernel/userspace/userspace.c, formerly kernel/userspace.c) maintains a doubly-linked list (objlist) of dynamically allocated kernel objects. Iteration over this list in kobjectwordlistforeach() was performed under listslock using the SAFE iterator (which caches the next node), but list removal and freeing of nodes was performed under different, disjoint spinlocks: objfreelock in kobjectfree() and objlock in unrefcheck(). On an SMP system, while one CPU iterated objlist under listslock, another CPU could unlink and kfree() the dynobj node that the iterator had cached as its next pointer, causing the iterator to dereference freed kernel memory (use-after-free / dangling list traversal). All of the racing operations are reachable from unprivileged user-mode threads via system calls: kobjectalloc/kobjectallocsize and kobjectrelease drive removals through unrefcheck() (under objlock), while kthreadabort and thread creation drive the iteration through kthreadpermsallclear()/kthreadpermsinherit() (under listslock). A deprivileged user thread on a CONFIGSMP + CONFIGUSERSPACE build can therefore corrupt the kernel's object-tracking structures across the userspace security boundary, yielding kernel memory corruption (potential privilege escalation) or a kernel crash (denial of service). The fix removes objfreelock and serializes every objlist modification under listslock, including holding it across find+remove in kobjectfree() and around unrefcheck() in kthreadpermsclear(). Affects CONFIGSMP+CONFIGUSERSPACE+CONFIGDYNAMICOBJECTS configurations; the defect dates to the 2019 spinlockification (commit 8a3d57b6cc6, first released in v1.14.0) and shipped through v4.4.0.