# CVE-2026-45977: fbnic: close fw_log race between users and teardown

> A race condition in the fbnic driver allows a use-after-free or null dereference during teardown, potentially causing a kernel crash.

- **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:** 27 May 2026
- **Updated:** 27 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-45977, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45977, GHSA-fgxx-jh4j-vgpg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-45977

## What is CVE-2026-45977?

CVE-2026-45977 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 May 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:

fbnic: close fw_log race between users and teardown

Fixes a theoretical race on fw_log between the teardown path and fw_log
write functions.

fw_log is written inside fbnic_fw_log_write() and can be reached from
the mailbox handler fbnic_fw_msix_intr(), but fw_log is freed before
IRQ/MBX teardown during cleanup, resulting in a potential data race of
dereferencing a freed/null variable.

Possible Interleaving Scenario:
  CPU0: fbnic_fw_msix_intr() // Entry
          fbnic_fw_log_write()
            if (fbnic_fw_log_ready())   // true
            ... preempt ...
  CPU1: fbnic_remove() // Entry
          fbnic_fw_log_free()
            vfree(log->data_start);
            log->data_start = NULL;
  CPU0: continues, walks log->entries or writes to log->data_start

The initialization also has an incorrect order problem, as the fw_log
is currently allocated after MBX setup during initialization.
Fix the problems by adjusting the synchronization order to put
initialization in place before the mailbox is enabled, and not cleared
until after the mailbox has been disabled.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-45977?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-45977?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-45977 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-45977 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-2026-45977 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-45977 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 May 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-2026-45977 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-2026-45977/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45977/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-45977
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45977
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-45977

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-45977/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.