Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-72494 in the interactive tracker
CVE-2026-72494
RDMA/irdma: Replace waitqueue and flag with completion
Published 2026-08-15 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem drivers/infiniband. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-72494 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 | vulnerable | 6.1.190-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series bookworm tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for bookworm have historically landed a median of 23 days after publication. |
| Debian 13trixie | vulnerable | 6.12.113-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series trixie tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for trixie have historically landed a median of 11 days after publication. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.5-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.5-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
The driver previously used a waitqueue along with an explicit request_done flag, but without proper barriers around request_done. An earlier patch by Gui-Dong Han <hanguidong02@gmail.com> attempted to fix this by adding the missing memory barriers. Rather than adding the barriers, this patch replaces the waitqueue+flag with a completion, which is designed for this exact purpose.
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.
drivers/infiniband/hw/irdma/hw.c
drivers/infiniband/hw/irdma/main.h
drivers/infiniband/hw/irdma/utils.c
- What this is
- INTEL ETHERNET PROTOCOL DRIVER FOR RDMAMAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/infiniband/hw/irdma/ · linux-rdma@vger.kernel.org · Supported
- Kernel module
- irdma
Check it on the machine
grep -wE 'CONFIG_INFINIBAND|CONFIG_INFINIBAND_IRDMA' /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 irdmaPrints 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, but not on every flavour. At least one release below builds the code on some of its kernel flavours and not on others, so the answer depends on the architecture and flavour installed.
- bookwormMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64
- trixieMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64, armel/rpi
- forky, sidMnot built on amd64/cloud-amd64, arm64/cloud-arm64, armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, loong64/loong64, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k, riscv64/riscv64, s390x/s390x
- M
- a module where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it
- Build switches
- CONFIG_INFINIBAND, CONFIG_INFINIBAND_IRDMA
- 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
- 0.65%, higher than 50.1% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- drivers/infiniband
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 5.14 | 6.18.53 | 706591cccdd3 |
| 5.14 | 7.1.5 | bde37aed0724 |
| 5.14 | 7.2 | d9c8c45e6d2f |
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
- Intel irdma CQP completion/wait synchronization is exercised from remote iWARP/RoCE connection management (SYN/listener/IEQ/AEQ) and deferred-completion events, not only local ibverbs; network peers drive the completion side of the race on internet-facing RDMA/NFS/SMB-Direct servers.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- Attacker controls both sides by flooding concurrent connections/CQP ops remotely or via concurrent RDMA verbs locally; missing release/acquire ordering on request_done vs compl_info is triggerable at high operation rates without luck-dependent layout.
- PR:NPrivileges required, none
- Remote CM and packet-processing paths issue/wait on CQP before MPA/application auth; local exploitation needs only standard unprivileged /dev/infiniband/uverbs* access (0666 under typical rdma-core udev rules), not init-namespace capabilities.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- Exploitation needs only attacker-driven network or verbs traffic against an already-bound RDMA device/listener; no additional victim user action at attack time beyond normal server role.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- Impact stays within kernel/driver security domain (CQP request objects, NIC PF reset); no VM escape or cross-authority boundary.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- Without proper barriers the waiter can observe request_done before compl_info stores, return success with stale op_ret_val/error, and recycle the cqp_request while hardware still references scratch → UAF/read primitives.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- Premature recycle/double-put of dynamic cqp_requests enables attacker-influenced heap reuse; stale callbacks on reused objects and invalid kfree paths provide kernel write/control-flow corruption primitives.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- Lost request_done causes CQP timeout → ice_rdma_request_reset PF reset; wrong completion state can leave mod_qp_waitq in uninterruptible wait; UAF/panic paths cause kernel crash/hang.