CVE-2026-80986 net/smc: bound the peer rkey counts in SMC-Rv2 LLC messages
A slab-out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel's SMC-Rv2 LLC message handling can cause a system crash when processing link additions.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-80986?
CVE-2026-80986 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 11 Sep 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:
net/smc: bound the peer rkey counts in SMC-Rv2 LLC messages
On a link whose device has max_recv_sge == 1 there is no shared v2 receive buffer, and smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys() takes the v2 extension from 44 bytes past the start of the queue entry's inline message:
ext = (struct smc_llc_msg_add_link_v2_ext *)(llc_msg + SMC_WR_TX_SIZE);
The entry is a 72-byte allocation and the extension starts at offset 68, so ext->num_rkeys at offset 94 is already past it. This happens on every SMC-Rv2 link addition, whatever the peer sends:
[ 2.490065] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490431] Read of size 2 at addr ffff8880056406de by task smctest/106 [ 2.490709] [ 2.490792] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 106 Comm: smctest Not tainted 7.2.0-rc5-p1-g77a5d9d9c99f #32 PREEMPT(lazy) [ 2.490795] Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 2.490798] Call Trace: [ 2.490803] <TASK> [ 2.490805] dump_stack_lvl+0x53/0x70 [ 2.490810] print_report+0xd0/0x630 [ 2.490828] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490832] ? smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490834] kasan_report+0xce/0x100 [ 2.490836] ? smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490837] smc_llc_save_add_link_rkeys+0x333/0x350 [ 2.490839] ? smcr_buf_map_lgr+0x1bf/0x2b0 [ 2.490844] smc_llc_cli_add_link+0xca7/0x1e80 [ 2.490848] ? smc_llc_wait+0x355/0x810 [ 2.490850] ? __pfx_smc_llc_wait+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490851] ? __pfx_smc_llc_cli_add_link+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490853] ? __pfx_autoremove_wake_function+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490863] __smc_connect+0x3f5c/0x4980 [ 2.490873] ? __pfx_kernel_connect+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490888] ? __pfx___smc_connect+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490891] ? release_sock+0x148/0x1d0 [ 2.490894] smc_connect+0x42c/0x580 [ 2.490896] __sys_connect+0xfc/0x130 [ 2.490898] ? __pfx___sys_connect+0x10/0x10 [ 2.490900] ? handle_mm_fault+0x1a1/0x430 [ 2.490908] __x64_sys_connect+0x6d/0xb0 [ 2.490909] ? fpregs_assert_state_consistent+0x56/0xe0 [ 2.490917] do_syscall_64+0xf9/0x540 [ 2.490921] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f [ 2.490924] RIP: 0033:0x421bb4 [ 2.490927] Code: ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d ad 34 09 00 00 74 13 b8 2a 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 4c c3 0f 1f 00 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 10 89 55 [ 2.490929] RSP: 002b:00007ffd473b01a8 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002a [ 2.490935] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000421bb4 [ 2.490936] RDX: 0000000000000010 RSI: 00007ffd473b01d0 RDI: 0000000000000003 [ 2.490937] RBP: 0000000000003930 R08: 0000000000000004 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 2.490938] R10: 00007ffd473b0f98 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000006 [ 2.490939] R13: 00007ffd473b0f87 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 00007ffd473b0f90 [ 2.490940] </TASK> [ 2.490941] [ 2.499545] Allocated by task 44: [ 2.499693] kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 [ 2.499860] kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 [ 2.500026] __kasan_kmalloc+0x8f/0xa0 [ 2.500190] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x158/0x370 [ 2.500393] smc_llc_enqueue+0x72/0x560 [ 2.500559] smc_wr_rx_tasklet_fn+0x474/0xa80 [ 2.500747] tasklet_action_common+0x20f/0x8a0 [ 2.500945] handle_softirqs+0x18e/0x590 [ 2.501115] do_softirq+0x3b/0x60 [ 2.501266] __local_bh_enable_ip+0x61/0x70 [ 2.501446] __alloc_skb+0x732/0x890 [ 2.501604] rxe_init_packet+0x16b/0x4f0 [ 2.501783] prepare_ack_packet+0xb8/0x830 [ 2.501962] rxe_receiver+0x495/0x96e0 [ 2.502125] do_work+0x144/0x470 [ 2.502269] process_one_work+0x633/0x1030 [ 2.502450] worker_thread+0x45b/0xd10 [ 2.50261 ---truncated---
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-80986?
How do I fix CVE-2026-80986?
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-2026-80986 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-80986 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-80986, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-80986, GHSA-f5q8-wrwg-4pwh, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-80986.