# CVE-2026-23356: drbd: fix "LOGIC BUG" in drbd_al_begin_io_nonblock()

> A logic bug in the Linux kernel DRBD driver can cause a kernel crash during resync operations, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 25 Mar 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-80726, BELL-CVE-2026-23356, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23356, GHSA-rp6p-x9w7-2rqg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-23356, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-23356, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23356, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-23356, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23356, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23356

## What is CVE-2026-23356?

CVE-2026-23356 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

drbd: fix "LOGIC BUG" in drbd_al_begin_io_nonblock()

Even though we check that we "should" be able to do lc_get_cumulative()
while holding the device->al_lock spinlock, it may still fail,
if some other code path decided to do lc_try_lock() with bad timing.

If that happened, we logged "LOGIC BUG for enr=...",
but still did not return an error.

The rest of the code now assumed that this request has references
for the relevant activity log extents.

The implcations are that during an active resync, mutual exclusivity of
resync versus application IO is not guaranteed. And a potential crash
at this point may not realizs that these extents could have been target
of in-flight IO and would need to be resynced just in case.

Also, once the request completes, it will give up activity log references it
does not even hold, which will trigger a BUG_ON(refcnt == 0) in lc_put().

Fix:

Do not crash the kernel for a condition that is harmless during normal
operation: also catch "e->refcnt == 0", not only "e == NULL"
when being noisy about "al_complete_io() called on inactive extent %u\n".

And do not try to be smart and "guess" whether something will work, then
be surprised when it does not.
Deal with the fact that it may or may not work.  If it does not, remember a
possible "partially in activity log" state (only possible for requests that
cross extent boundaries), and return an error code from
drbd_al_begin_io_nonblock().

A latter call for the same request will then resume from where we left off.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23356?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23356?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23356 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23356 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-23356 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23356 is a medium-severity denial of service 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23356 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23356/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23356/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23356
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23356
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23356

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23356/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.