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CVE-2026-89631
smb: client: reject a tree connect response whose byte count is too small
Published 2026-09-11 (37 days 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-2026-89631 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 | 7.2.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.2.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
CIFSTCon() bounds its strnlen() over the byte area with the server's ByteCount minus two, which for ByteCount 0 or 1 goes negative as an int and converts to a huge size_t. The later subtraction wraps the __u16 bytes_left, and that is what bounds cifs_strndup_from_utf16(): a bound of up to 65535 against a ~16 KB cifs_req_poolp object runs off the end of the slab object, and the bytes reach userspace through tcon->nativeFileSystem in /proc/fs/cifs/DebugData. Reject a byte area too small for what the parser consumes. Two bytes is the least it can consume, and no conformant response carries fewer. The new trace point is the 129th smb_eio_trace entry, which __mode(byte) cannot represent, so the attribute goes with it.
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/client/cifssmb.c
fs/smb/client/trace.h
- What this is
- COMMON INTERNET FILE SYSTEM CLIENT (CIFS and SMB3)MAINTAINERS section matched on fs/smb/client/ · linux-cifs@vger.kernel.org · Supported
- Kernel module
- cifs
Check it on the machine
grep -wE 'CONFIG_CIFS|CONFIG_CIFS_ALLOW_INSECURE_LEGACY|CONFIG_SMBFS' /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 cifsPrints 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_CIFS, CONFIG_CIFS_ALLOW_INSECURE_LEGACY, CONFIG_SMBFS
- 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
- 2026-09-11 (37 days 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
- 0.44%, higher than 37.0% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2.6.30 | 6.18.51 | 3be89e8039a8 |
| 2.6.30 | 7.2.4 | 411e484fe71a |
| 2.6.30 | 7.3 | 65deb1835934 |
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
- CIFSTCon() parses a TREE_CONNECT_ANDX response received over TCP (typically port 445) from the SMB peer, so a malicious or compromised CIFS server supplies the undersized ByteCount remotely.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- A server that returns success with ByteCount 0 or 1 triggers the integer underflow and wrapped 65535-byte bound deterministically; CONFIG_CIFS_ALLOW_INSECURE_LEGACY defaults to y, and no race or uncontrolled memory layout is required.
- PR:NPrivileges required, none
- The attacker is the remote SMB server (or a MITM on unsigned SMB1); the client authenticates to that peer, so no account, capability, or privilege on the victim host is required.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- Existing SMB1 mounts, IPC tcons, automounts, fstab, and cifsroot reconnect via cifs_tree_connect() after a server-induced TCP drop, so the crafted TREE_CONNECT response is processed without contemporaneous user action.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- The out-of-bounds slab read, kernel-memory leak, and possible oops remain inside the client kernel's security authority and do not cross a VM, IOMMU, or sandbox boundary.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- ByteCount underflow wraps the __u16 bound to up to 65535 bytes against a ~16KB cifs_request slab, so cifs_strndup_from_utf16() copies adjacent kernel heap into tcon->nativeFileSystem, which is then exposed through /proc/fs/cifs/DebugData.
- I:NIntegrity impact, none
- The defect is an out-of-bounds read copied into a newly allocated, correctly sized string; it does not write outside that allocation or provide an arbitrary-write or control-flow primitive.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- strnlen(), kstrndup(), and cifs_utf16_bytes() walk tens of kilobytes past the cifs_request object into unmapped or guarded pages, causing a kernel oops or panic that a malicious peer can retrigger on reconnect.