data built 2026-10-19T13:16:53Z

Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-93198 in the interactive tracker

CVE-2026-93198

dm-pcache: validate the persisted dirty_tail chain at load

EPSS 0.2%

Published 2026-09-17 (31 days ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem drivers/md. Debian urgency: unimportant.

What to do, per Debian release

Debian's own status for CVE-2026-93198 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

ReleaseStatus VersionWhat this means
Debian 12bookwormnot affected6.1.190-1Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 13trixienot affected6.12.113-1Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 14forkyfixed7.2.6-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.2.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.
Debian unstablesidfixed7.2.6-1Update 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

The writeback worker follows the persisted dirty_tail chain, which is decoded from the cache device independently of the key_tail chain that cache_replay() walks and bounds. A crafted image, whose on-media fields are authenticated only by a crc32c with a fixed seed, can aim dirty_tail at a chain of last ksets that never terminates, so cache_writeback_fn() re-arms itself with no delay forever. Walk the dirty_tail chain once at load with the same hop cap cache_replay() uses and fail the table load with -EIO if it does not reach an end within n_segs hops.

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/md/dm-pcache/cache.c
drivers/md/dm-pcache/cache.h
drivers/md/dm-pcache/cache_key.c

What this is
DEVICE-MAPPER PCACHE TARGETMAINTAINERS section matched on drivers/md/dm-pcache/ · dm-devel@lists.linux.dev · Maintained

Check it on the machine

grep -wE 'CONFIG_DM_PCACHE|CONFIG_MD' /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.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian does not build this code in 2 releases. The build rule could not be established for 2 releases, so nothing is claimed about those.

  • bookworm, trixie?
  • forky, sidn
?
not established - no Makefile entry for the affected file
n
not enabled on any flavour - this release does not build the code

Where a release above reads "not established", no build rule for the affected file was found in that release's kernel tree. That is a gap in this lookup, not a finding that the code is absent.

Build switches
CONFIG_DM_PCACHE, CONFIG_MD
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
2026-09-17 (31 days ago)source
CVSS
no vector published, unrated
Attack vector
not published
EPSS
0.21%, higher than 10.0% of all CVEssource
CISA KEV
not listedthe KEV catalogue
Debian urgency
unimportantsource
Subsystem
drivers/md

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

IntroducedFixed inCommit
6.186.18.528195cf3f4a82
6.187.2.64822a030929e
6.187.358d620ee9e01

Why the CNA scored it this way

The kernel CNA published no CVSS vector and no reasoning for CVE-2026-93198, which is why it is shown as unrated rather than given an invented score. 6,405 of the 20,413 CVEs here carry reasoning; this is not one of them.