# 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.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-102066, BELL-CVE-2026-90170, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90170, GHSA-7vg6-6285-wmrm, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90170

## 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.

## Is CVE-2026-90170 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90170 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-90170 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90170 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-2026-90170/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90170/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-90170
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-90170
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-90170

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-90170/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.