Bug 2502240 (CVE-2026-53392)

Summary: CVE-2026-53392 kernel: NFSv4/flexfiles: reject zero filehandle version count
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's NFSv4 (Network File System version 4) flexfiles component. This vulnerability occurs when the ff_layout_alloc_lseg() function processes a malformed flexfiles layout that specifies a zero filehandle version count. An attacker could exploit this by providing a specially crafted flexfiles layout, leading to a null-pointer dereference and ultimately causing a kernel panic, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the system.
 Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-19 13:03:31 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

NFSv4/flexfiles: reject zero filehandle version count

ff_layout_alloc_lseg() decodes the filehandle-version array count
from the flexfiles layout body. The value is used as the count for
kzalloc_objs(), and the current code only rejects NULL.

A zero count yields ZERO_SIZE_PTR, which can be stored in
dss_info->fh_versions even though later flexfiles paths assume that at
least one filehandle version exists.

Reject fh_count == 0 before the allocation, matching the existing zero
version_count validation in the flexfiles GETDEVICEINFO parser.

A QEMU/KASAN run with a malformed flexfiles layout hit:

  KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017]
  RIP: 0010:ff_layout_encode_ff_layoutupdate.isra.0+0x15f/0x750
  ff_layout_encode_layoutreturn+0x683/0x970
  nfs4_xdr_enc_layoutreturn+0x278/0x3a0
  Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception

The patched kernel rejects the malformed layout without KASAN/oops/panic,
and a valid fh_count=1 regression still opens, reads, and unmounts cleanly.
Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-07-20 13:52:12 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026071956-CVE-2026-53392-540c@gregkh/T