# CVE-2026-89975: nvme-fabrics: fix DHCHAP secret leak on parse failure

> A local attacker can trigger a memory leak of sensitive DHCHAP secrets in the Linux kernel NVMe fabrics driver, potentially causing denial of service or secret exposure.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-101645, BELL-CVE-2026-89975, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89975, GHSA-9hxp-3v8h-pjp2, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89975

## What is CVE-2026-89975?

CVE-2026-89975 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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:

nvme-fabrics: fix DHCHAP secret leak on parse failure

nvmf_parse_options() duplicates dhchap_secret and dhchap_ctrl_secret
with match_strdup() before validating the DHHC-1: representation.

If validation fails, the parser returns -EINVAL before the temporary
string in p is assigned to opts->dhchap_secret or
opts->dhchap_ctrl_secret. nvmf_create_ctrl() subsequently frees opts,
but nvmf_free_options() cannot release the unassigned temporary string.
Each rejected option therefore leaks one allocation.

This is easy to miss because valid secrets transfer ownership to opts
and are freed normally, while the malformed-secret path still returns
the expected -EINVAL to userspace.

With CONFIG_NVME_HOST_AUTH enabled, the leak is reachable before the
required-option checks and transport lookup. No NVMe-oF target or
working transport connection is required; for example, repeatedly
writing

	dhchap_secret=BAD

or

	dhchap_ctrl_secret=BAD

to /dev/nvme-fabrics deterministically takes the leaking parse path.

Free the temporary string before leaving both validation error paths.
Use kfree_sensitive() because the copied option may contain secret
material even when its representation is rejected, matching the
sensitive cleanup used for stored DHCHAP secrets.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89975?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-89975?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-89975 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89975 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-89975 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-89975 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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-2026-89975 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-2026-89975/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-89975/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-89975
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-89975
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-89975

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-89975/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.