CVE-2026-97409 nvme-fc: Do not cancel requests in io target before it is initialized
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel NVMe FC driver can cause a system crash when an admin request times out before the IO target is initialized.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-97409?
CVE-2026-97409 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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-fc: Do not cancel requests in io target before it is initialized
A new nvme-fc controller in CONNECTING state sees admin request timeout schedules ctrl->ioerr_work to abort inflight requests. This ends up calling __nvme_fc_abort_outstanding_ios() which aborts requests in both admin and io tagsets. In case fc_ctrl->tag_set was not initialized we see the warning below. This is because ctrl.queue_count is initialized early in nvme_fc_alloc_ctrl().
nvme nvme0: NVME-FC{0}: starting error recovery Connectivity Loss INFO: trying to register non-static key. The code is fine but needs lockdep annotation, or maybe lpfc 0000:ab:00.0: queue 0 connect admin queue failed (-6). you didn't initialize this object before use? turning off the locking correctness validator. Workqueue: nvme-reset-wq nvme_fc_ctrl_ioerr_work [nvme_fc] Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x80 register_lock_class+0x567/0x580 __lock_acquire+0x330/0xb90 lock_acquire.part.0+0xad/0x210 blk_mq_tagset_busy_iter+0xf9/0xc00 __nvme_fc_abort_outstanding_ios+0x23f/0x320 [nvme_fc] nvme_fc_ctrl_ioerr_work+0x172/0x210 [nvme_fc] process_one_work+0x82c/0x1450 worker_thread+0x5ee/0xfd0 kthread+0x3a0/0x750 ret_from_fork+0x439/0x670 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK>
Update the check in __nvme_fc_abort_outstanding_ios() confirm that io tagset was created before iterating over busy requests. Also make sure to cancel ctrl->ioerr_work before removing io tagset.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97409?
How do I fix CVE-2026-97409?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-97409 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97409 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-103997, BELL-CVE-2026-97409, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97409, GHSA-cq4p-q6c3-fqxh, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97409.