CVE-2026-90170 ksmbd: validate ipc response length before dereferencing its fields
A local attacker with high privileges can trigger a slab-out-of-bounds read in the ksmbd kernel module, potentially causing a system crash or arbitrary code execution.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-90170?
CVE-2026-90170 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 17 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:
ksmbd: validate ipc response length before dereferencing its fields
ipc_validate_msg() computes the expected message size by reading length fields out of the response buffer supplied by the userspace ksmbd daemon (payload_sz, session_key_len, ngroups, ...). Those fields are read before the buffer is verified to be large enough to contain the struct they belong to, so a short response makes the read land past the end of the allocation.
handle_response() sizes entry->response purely from the netlink attribute length (nla_len()) and only guards the leading handle read, so the daemon can install a response as small as the kmalloc-8 object seen below. When ipc_msg_send_request() then calls ipc_validate_msg() for a KSMBD_EVENT_RPC_REQUEST, the cast to struct ksmbd_rpc_command reads resp->payload_sz at offset 8 of an 8-byte allocation:
[ 3697.841381] ================================================================== [ 3697.844099] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in ipc_msg_send_request+0x763/0x800 [ 3697.846604] Read of size 4 at addr ffff888105f95910 by task kworker/4:3/20682 [ 3697.849061] [ 3697.849801] CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 20682 Comm: kworker/4:3 Not tainted 7.2.0-rc3-next-20260717-virtme #117 PREEMPT(lazy) [ 3697.850077] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014 [ 3697.850303] Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work [ 3697.850592] Call Trace: [ 3697.850794] <TASK> [ 3697.850952] __dump_stack+0x21/0x60 [ 3697.851239] dump_stack_lvl+0xc2/0x100 [ 3697.851528] print_address_description+0x77/0x200 [ 3697.851816] ? ipc_msg_send_request+0x763/0x800 [ 3697.852024] print_report+0x58/0x70 [ 3697.852316] kasan_report+0x117/0x150 [ 3697.852585] ? down_write+0x146/0x1f0 [ 3697.852809] ? ipc_msg_send_request+0x763/0x800 [ 3697.853082] ipc_msg_send_request+0x763/0x800 [ 3697.853385] ? __pfx_ipc_msg_send_request+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.853604] ? kasan_unpoison+0x48/0x70 [ 3697.853936] ? __pfx___up_read+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.854221] ksmbd_rpc_ioctl+0x380/0x520 [ 3697.854542] ? __pfx_ksmbd_rpc_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.854757] ? kasan_unpoison+0x48/0x70 [ 3697.854962] ? copy_from_kernel_nofault+0x32c/0x4e0 [ 3697.855166] ? kasan_unpoison+0x48/0x70 [ 3697.855416] fsctl_pipe_transceive+0x139/0x7a0 [ 3697.855705] ? __pfx_copy_from_kernel_nofault+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.855937] ? __pfx_fsctl_pipe_transceive+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.856388] ? __sanitizer_cov_trace_switch+0x7b/0x140 [ 3697.856620] smb2_ioctl+0x1141/0x3420 [ 3697.856994] ? __pfx_smb2_ioctl+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.857182] ? get_smb2_cmd_val+0xe3/0x1c0 [ 3697.857655] handle_ksmbd_work+0x9ad/0x15e0 [ 3697.858034] ? __pfx_handle_ksmbd_work+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.858251] ? lock_release+0xf7/0x360 [ 3697.858466] ? process_scheduled_works+0x954/0x1600 [ 3697.858698] ? process_scheduled_works+0x954/0x1600 [ 3697.858905] process_scheduled_works+0xc22/0x1600 [ 3697.859368] ? __pfx_process_scheduled_works+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.859637] ? __pfx_assign_work+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.859896] ? lock_is_held_type+0x7b/0x110 [ 3697.860146] worker_thread+0x975/0xee0 [ 3697.860524] ? __pfx_do_raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.860830] ? __kthread_parkme+0x21e/0x260 [ 3697.861105] kthread+0x3a6/0x490 [ 3697.861423] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.861643] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.861878] ret_from_fork+0x55a/0xa20 [ 3697.862194] ? __pfx_ret_from_fork+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.862480] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 3697.862714] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 3697.862965] </TASK> [ 3697.863039] [ 3697.938882] Allocated by task 20761: [ 3697.940257] kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 [ 3697.941782] __kasan_kmalloc+0x72/0x90 [ 3697.943228] __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x3e9/0x6a0 [ 3697.944948] handle_generic_event+0x59b/0x750 [ 3697.946592] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x3d6/0x560 [ 3697.946977] genl_rcv_msg+0x67c/0x900 [ 3697.947224] netlink_rcv_skb+0x286/0x580 [ 3697.947488] genl_rcv+0x2d/0x80 [ 3 ---truncated---
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90170?
How do I fix CVE-2026-90170?
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-2026-90170 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90170 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-102066, BELL-CVE-2026-90170, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90170, GHSA-7vg6-6285-wmrm, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90170.