CVE-2026-72422

What the bug is

conn->preauth_info is shared connection state (struct preauth_integrity_info, kmalloc-96) that is allocated and freed by the SMB2 NEGOTIATE handler and read by the response send path. smb2_handle_negotiate() allocates conn->preauth_info, and on a deassemble_neg_contexts() failure kfrees it and sets it to NULL. Both the allocation and the free/NULL happen under ksmbd_conn_lock(conn) (the connection srv_mutex), which is held across the whole handler body. The response send path smb3_preauth_hash_rsp(), called from the send: block of __handle_ksmbd_work(), reads conn->preauth_info and dereferences conn->preauth_info->Preauth_HashValue (via ksmbd_gen_preauth_integrity_hash()) without taking conn_lock. When a client drives two SMB2 NEGOTIATE requests on the same connection, one worker can free conn->preauth_info on the failing-negotiate path while a concurrent send-path worker is reading it, producing a slab use-after-free read (KASAN-confirmed). The send-path read tested conn->preauth_info for NULL but raced with the free that occurs between the NULL check and the dereference, so the NULL guard alone does not close the window. Serialize the NEGOTIATE-branch read in smb3_preauth_hash_rsp() under ksmbd_conn_lock(conn) and re-check conn->preauth_info inside the lock. Because the negotiate handler holds conn_lock across its kfree + NULL assignment, a reader that also takes conn_lock either runs fully before the allocation or fully after the NULL store, and can never observe the freed-but-not-yet-NULLed pointer. ksmbd_gen_preauth_integrity_hash() takes no locks itself (it only computes a SHA-512 over the buffer), so no lock-ordering inversion is introduced, and conn_lock is a sleepable mutex which is safe on this send path (it already performs network I/O).

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/smb2pdu.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 ksmbd

Prints 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, sidm

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

2026-08-15 (2 months ago)source

CVSS

9.8 critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it

Attack vector

network (AV:N)source

EPSS

0.72%, higher than 52.9% 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
5.15.61	5.15.212	c7bef84740d1
6.0	6.1.178	d0a469122e7b
6.0	6.6.145	7470511d085a
6.0	6.12.97	16a1ecf39c21
6.0	6.18.40	77bb0bbfcc4e
6.0	7.1.5	1c89da3baa2b
6.0	7.2	0c054227479e
5.18.18	0	0
5.19.2	0	0