# CVE-2026-80528: ceph: avoid fs reclaim while using current->journal_info

> A kernel crash occurs in the Ceph filesystem when memory reclaim triggers an ext4 transaction, causing a null pointer dereference and system denial of service.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 26 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 16 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-97689, BELL-CVE-2026-80528, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-80528, GHSA-g3v4-jm6x-37fc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80528

## What is CVE-2026-80528?

CVE-2026-80528 is a critical vulnerability in Linux, published on 26 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ceph: avoid fs reclaim while using current->journal_info

handle_reply() stores a `ceph_mds_request` pointer in
`current->journal_info` while filling the inode and dentry cache from
an MDS reply.

An allocation in this section can enter direct reclaim and prune
dentries from another filesystem.  If this dirties an ext4 inode, ext4
starts a JBD2 transaction.  JBD2 interprets the Ceph request in
`current->journal_info` as a journal handle and dereferences the
request's `r_tid` as `h_transaction`, causing a kernel crash, e.g.:

 Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 00000000077b4818
 [...]
 Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1]  SMP
 Modules linked in:
 CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 2699135 Comm: kworker/6:3 Tainted: G        W           6.18.38-i3 #1113 NONE
 [...]
 Workqueue: ceph-msgr ceph_con_workfn
 pstate: 80400009 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
 pc : jbd2__journal_start+0x2c/0x208
 lr : __ext4_journal_start_sb+0x100/0x178
 [...]
 Call trace:
  jbd2__journal_start+0x2c/0x208 (P)
  __ext4_journal_start_sb+0x100/0x178
  ext4_dirty_inode+0x3c/0x90
  __mark_inode_dirty+0x58/0x400
  iput.part.0+0x2b0/0x370
  iput+0x18/0x30
  dentry_unlink_inode+0xc0/0x158
  __dentry_kill+0x80/0x250
  shrink_dentry_list+0x90/0x130
  prune_dcache_sb+0x60/0x98
  super_cache_scan+0xe8/0x190
  do_shrink_slab+0x174/0x388
  shrink_slab+0xd8/0x4c0
  shrink_node+0x31c/0x908
  do_try_to_free_pages+0xd0/0x508
  try_to_free_pages+0x11c/0x238
  __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x4d0/0xdd0
  __folio_alloc_noprof+0x18/0x70
  __filemap_get_folio+0x248/0x440
  ceph_readdir_prepopulate+0x570/0x9e8
  mds_dispatch+0x1424/0x1ba0
  ceph_con_process_message+0x74/0xa0
  ceph_con_v1_try_read+0x3a0/0x1510
  ceph_con_workfn+0x260/0x460

Enter a scoped NOFS allocation context and leave it after clearing
`journal_info`.  This prevents filesystem reclaim from recursing into
another filesystem while the field contains Ceph-private data.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-80528?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-80528?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-80528 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80528 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-80528 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-80528 is a critical vulnerability in Linux, published on 26 Aug 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80528 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-80528/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-80528/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-80528
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-80528
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-80528

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-80528/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.