CVE-2026-23327 cxl/mbox: validate payload size before accessing contents in cxl_payload_from_user_allowed()
A local attacker can trigger a kernel out-of-bounds read in the CXL mailbox driver by sending an undersized payload, causing a system crash.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-23327?
CVE-2026-23327 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
cxl/mbox: validate payload size before accessing contents in cxl_payload_from_user_allowed()
cxl_payload_from_user_allowed() casts and dereferences the input payload without first verifying its size. When a raw mailbox command is sent with an undersized payload (ie: 1 byte for CXL_MBOX_OP_CLEAR_LOG, which expects a 16-byte UUID), uuid_equal() reads past the allocated buffer, triggering a KASAN splat:
BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in memcmp+0x176/0x1d0 lib/string.c:683 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810130f5c0 by task syz.1.62/2258
CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 2258 Comm: syz.1.62 Not tainted 6.19.0-dirty #3 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0xab/0xe0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xce/0x650 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0xce/0x100 mm/kasan/report.c:595 memcmp+0x176/0x1d0 lib/string.c:683 uuid_equal include/linux/uuid.h:73 [inline] cxl_payload_from_user_allowed drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:345 [inline] cxl_mbox_cmd_ctor drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:368 [inline] cxl_validate_cmd_from_user drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:522 [inline] cxl_send_cmd+0x9c0/0xb50 drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:643 __cxl_memdev_ioctl drivers/cxl/core/memdev.c:698 [inline] cxl_memdev_ioctl+0x14f/0x190 drivers/cxl/core/memdev.c:713 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:583 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xa8/0x330 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fdaf331ba79 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fdaf1d77038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fdaf3585fa0 RCX: 00007fdaf331ba79 RDX: 00002000000001c0 RSI: 00000000c030ce02 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007fdaf33749df R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007fdaf3586038 R14: 00007fdaf3585fa0 R15: 00007ffced2af768 </TASK>
Add 'in_size' parameter to cxl_payload_from_user_allowed() and validate the payload is large enough.
Weakness: CWE-125
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23327?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-23327?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-23327 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23327 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-23327, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23327, GHSA-2pc8-ghgj-6c2f, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-23327, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23327, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23327 and 1 more.