CVE-2026-97531 scsi: qla2xxx: Skip vport under deletion in report ID acquisition
A race condition in the qla2xxx SCSI driver allows use-after-free, potentially leading to code execution or system crash.
- 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-2026-97531?
CVE-2026-97531 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 25 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:
scsi: qla2xxx: Skip vport under deletion in report ID acquisition
qla24xx_report_id_acquisition() format-1 handling walks ha->vp_list under vport_slock, takes a vref_count on the matching vport and calls qla_update_host_map() to register its port id.
A vport teardown via qla24xx_vport_delete() sets VPORT_DELETE, then qla24xx_disable_vp() removes the vport from the host_map btree and zeroes vha->d_id (RESET_AL_PA). The vport is only unlinked from vp_list later, in qla24xx_deallocate_vp_id(), which clears vp_map[idx] (RESET_VP_IDX) but does not touch host_map. In the window in between, report ID acquisition can still find the vport on vp_list and call qla_update_host_map(); with d_id already zeroed it takes the btree_insert32() path and re-inserts the dying vport into host_map. Nothing cleans that entry afterwards, so once scsi_host_put() frees the vha a later host_map lookup dereferences freed memory.
Skip a vport that has VPORT_DELETE set before taking the reference, so it is neither re-registered nor scheduled for DPC re-registration. This mirrors the existing guard in qla2x00_alert_all_vps().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-97531?
How do I fix CVE-2026-97531?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2026-97531 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-97531 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-104693, BELL-CVE-2026-97531, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97531, GHSA-pr28-3mcx-gcmr, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97531.