# CVE-2026-46066: ceph: fix num_ops off-by-one when crypto allocation fails

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic in the Linux kernel's CephFS module by causing memory allocation failures during encrypted file writebacks.

- **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:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-88704, BELL-CVE-2026-46066, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-46066, GHSA-2hfr-22wv-h4vj, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-46066, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-46066, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-46066

## What is CVE-2026-46066?

CVE-2026-46066 is a medium-severity denial of service 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:

ceph: fix num_ops off-by-one when crypto allocation fails

move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() may fail if the file is encrypted, the
dirty folio is not the first in the batch, and it fails to allocate a
bounce buffer to hold the ciphertext. When that happens,
ceph_process_folio_batch() simply redirties the folio and flushes the
current batch -- it can retry that folio in a future batch.

However, if this failed folio is not contiguous with the last folio that
did make it into the batch, then ceph_process_folio_batch() has already
incremented `ceph_wbc->num_ops`; because it doesn't follow through and
add the discontiguous folio to the array, ceph_submit_write() -- which
expects that `ceph_wbc->num_ops` accurately reflects the number of
contiguous ranges (and therefore the required number of "write extent"
ops) in the writeback -- will panic the kernel:

    BUG_ON(ceph_wbc->op_idx + 1 != req->r_num_ops);

This issue can be reproduced on affected kernels by writing to
fscrypt-enabled CephFS file(s) with a 4KiB-written/4KiB-skipped/repeat
pattern (total filesize should not matter) and gradually increasing the
system's memory pressure until a bounce buffer allocation fails.

Fix this crash by decrementing `ceph_wbc->num_ops` back to the correct
value when move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() fails, but the folio already
started counting a new (i.e. still-empty) extent.

The defect corrected by this patch has existed since 2022 (see first
`Fixes:`), but another bug blocked multi-folio encrypted writeback until
recently (see second `Fixes:`). The second commit made it into 6.18.16,
6.19.6, and 7.0-rc1, unmasking the panic in those versions. This patch
therefore fixes a regression (panic) introduced by cac190c7674f.

Weakness: CWE-193 (Off-by-one Error)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-46066?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-46066?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-46066 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-46066 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-2026-46066 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-46066 is a medium-severity denial of service 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-2026-46066 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-2026-46066/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46066/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-46066
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-46066
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-46066

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-46066/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
