# CVE-2026-99039: memstick: core: wait for request completion before freeing card


- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 23 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 23 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-110912, BELL-CVE-2026-99039, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-99039, GHSA-r8cv-6pg4-74wg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-99039

## What is CVE-2026-99039?

CVE-2026-99039 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 23 Oct 2026. 

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

memstick: core: wait for request completion before freeing card

In memstick_alloc_card() and memstick_set_rw_addr(),
wait_for_completion_timeout() is used to wait for device identification
and address configuration requests to complete.

The memstick subsystem does not provide an abort or cancellation
callback in struct memstick_host for in-flight requests. If
wait_for_completion_timeout() expires (for instance, when a USB transfer
or command retry is delayed), memstick_alloc_card() returns an error and
frees the memstick_dev structure via kfree(card).

However, the host controller driver (such as rtsx_usb_ms) is still
running the request asynchronously in worker context. When the transfer
eventually finishes, the driver writes into host->req->data, which
points to memory inside the already freed card structure. This leads to
a KASAN slab-use-after-free write:

  BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ms_read_bytes+0x8fe/0x990
  Write of size 1 at addr ffff88813c188079 by task kworker/1:5/5239
  Workqueue: events rtsx_usb_ms_handle_req
  Call Trace:
   ms_read_bytes+0x8fe/0x990 drivers/memstick/host/rtsx_usb_ms.c:450
   rtsx_usb_ms_issue_cmd drivers/memstick/host/rtsx_usb_ms.c:477 [inline]
   rtsx_usb_ms_handle_req+0x557/0x1a00 drivers/memstick/host/rtsx_usb_ms.c:531
   process_one_work+0xac7/0x1b10 kernel/workqueue.c:3396
   worker_thread+0x5ef/0xe50 kernel/workqueue.c:3560
   kthread+0x373/0x450 kernel/kthread.c:436

  Allocated by task 1662:
   memstick_alloc_card drivers/memstick/core/memstick.c:383 [inline]
   memstick_check+0x2c1/0x10d0 drivers/memstick/core/memstick.c:452
   process_one_work+0xac7/0x1b10 kernel/workqueue.c:3396

  Freed by task 1662:
   kfree+0x20c/0x650 mm/slub.c:6792
   memstick_alloc_card drivers/memstick/core/memstick.c:420 [inline]
   memstick_check+0x72b/0x10d0 drivers/memstick/core/memstick.c:452
   process_one_work+0xac7/0x1b10 kernel/workqueue.c:3396

Host controller drivers (rtsx_usb_ms, jmb38x_ms, tifm_ms, r592) already
implement their own hardware and bus timeouts, and callers in
mspro_block and ms_block already rely on wait_for_completion()
unconditionally.

Replace wait_for_completion_timeout() with wait_for_completion() in
memstick_set_rw_addr() and memstick_alloc_card() so that the card
structure is never freed while an asynchronous request is in flight.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-99039?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-99039?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2026-99039 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-99039 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-99039 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-99039 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 23 Oct 2026. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-99039 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-2026-99039/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-99039/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-99039
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-99039
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-99039

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-99039/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.