Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-68431 in the interactive tracker
CVE-2026-68431
ksmbd: validate minimum PDU size for transform requests
Published 2026-08-12 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem fs/smb. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-68431 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | fixedDLA-4777-1 · 2026-09-08 · text | 6.1.187-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. DLA-4777-1 shipped the fix on 2026-09-08, in 6.1.187-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 13trixie | fixedDSA-6466-1 · 2026-08-25 · text | 6.12.105-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. DSA-6466-1 shipped the fix on 2026-08-25, in 6.12.105-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 12bookworm · linux-6.12 | fixedDLA-4788-1 · 2026-09-19 · text | 6.12.107-1~deb12u1 | Update the kernel and reboot. DLA-4788-1 shipped the fix on 2026-09-19, in 6.12.107-1~deb12u1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
The receive path applies the minimum SMB2 PDU size check only when ProtocolId is SMB2_PROTO_NUMBER. A packet carrying SMB2_TRANSFORM_PROTO_NUM bypasses the check even when the negotiated dialect does not provide transform handling. On an SMB 2.1 connection, a short transform packet therefore reaches init_smb2_rsp_hdr(), which interprets the request as a full SMB2 header and reads beyond the request allocation. The copied fields can then be returned to the unauthenticated client. Compression transforms are converted to ordinary SMB2 messages before protocol validation. After that conversion, validate ordinary SMB2 requests against SMB2_MIN_SUPPORTED_PDU_SIZE and require encryption transform requests to contain both a transform header and an SMB2 header. This rejects truncated requests before work allocation.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
fs/smb/server/connection.c
- What this is
- KERNEL SMB3 SERVER (KSMBD)MAINTAINERS section matched on fs/smb/server/ · linux-cifs@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
- Kernel module
- ksmbd
Check it on the machine
grep -wE 'CONFIG_SMBFS|CONFIG_SMB_SERVER' /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w ksmbdPrints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this as a loadable module. Every release below compiles it as a module on every flavour, so whether the code is in the running kernel depends on whether that module is loaded.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sid, bookworm · linux-6.12m
- m
- a loadable module on every flavour - check lsmod, can be blacklisted
- Build switches
- CONFIG_SMBFS, CONFIG_SMB_SERVER
- Reads as
- all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2026-08-12 (2 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 9.1 critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- network (AV:N)source
- EPSS
- 0.37%, higher than 29.0% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- fs/smb
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 5.15.145 | 5.15.217 | 22f1aa35b87e |
| 6.1.34 | 6.1.184 | 928dda88d0e1 |
| 6.4 | 6.6.153 | d8e5c5672724 |
| 6.4 | 6.12.105 | 32e486b70c25 |
| 6.4 | 6.18.46 | d9e9753dfd43 |
| 6.4 | 7.1.6 | b62c510f5980 |
| 6.4 | 7.2 | cfc0b8e5080a |
| 6.3.8 | 0 | 0 |
Debian advisories
| Advisory | Date | Shipped to | Debian |
|---|---|---|---|
| DLA-4788-1 | 2026-09-19 | bookworm 6.12.107-1~deb12u1 | tracker |
| DLA-4777-1 | 2026-09-08 | bookworm 6.1.187-1 | tracker |
| DSA-6466-1 | 2026-08-25 | trixie 6.12.105-1 | tracker |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:NAttack vector, network
- ksmbd is the in-kernel SMB server on TCP/445; the malformed short SMB2_TRANSFORM PDU is delivered entirely as remote network data in ksmbd_conn_handler_loop(), and the leaked bytes are returned in the network response. No local access is involved.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- The attacker connects, sends a NEGOTIATE selecting dialect 2.1 (permitted by default since ksmbd_min_protocol() is SMB21_PROT), then a 35-byte packet with ProtocolId 0xFD'SMB'; the undersized-buffer header copy happens deterministically with no race, timing, or memory-layout dependency.
- PR:NPrivileges required, none
- Only NEGOTIATE is required to reach the flaw, which precedes SESSION_SETUP; smb2_check_user_session() fails after the out-of-bounds copy has already been made, so the disclosure is delivered to a fully unauthenticated client.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- The attacker drives the entire exchange from a single TCP connection; no action by any local user, administrator, or SMB client is needed.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- The out-of-bounds read and the disclosed data remain within the kernel's own security authority; no VM, IOMMU, or sandbox boundary is crossed.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- init_smb2_rsp_hdr() reads a 64-byte smb2_hdr out of a ~40-byte kvmalloc allocation and echoes MessageId, ProcessId, TreeId, SessionId and 16 Signature bytes back to the client, disclosing ~28 bytes of uninitialized and adjacent kmalloc-64 heap contents per request, repeatable at will as a remote heap/KASLR oracle.
- I:NIntegrity impact, none
- The defect is a read past the request allocation; no attacker-controlled data is written into kernel memory and no kernel or filesystem state is modified by the truncated transform request.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- The header copy reads past the end of the slab object; on KASAN, hardware tag-based KASAN (MTE), or slub_debug/hardened builds this is a fatal report, and any such unchecked out-of-bounds kernel access is treated as crash-capable.