Bug 2502329 (CVE-2026-63886)

Summary: CVE-2026-63886 kernel: scsi: target: iscsi: Validate CHAP_R length before base64 decode
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's iSCSI target functionality. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to cause a buffer overflow by sending a specially crafted Challenge-Handshake Authentication Authentication Protocol (CHAP) response. The system fails to validate the length of the BASE64-encoded CHAP response before decoding it, leading to memory corruption. This could potentially lead to a denial of service or other unpredictable system behavior.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-19 16:02:14 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

scsi: target: iscsi: Validate CHAP_R length before base64 decode

chap_server_compute_hash() allocates client_digest as
kzalloc(chap->digest_size) and then, for BASE64-encoded responses,
passes chap_r directly to chap_base64_decode() without checking whether
the input length could produce more than digest_size bytes of output.

chap_base64_decode() writes to the destination unconditionally as long
as there is input to consume. With MAX_RESPONSE_LENGTH set to 128 and
the "0b" prefix stripped by extract_param(), up to 127 base64 characters
can reach the decoder. 127 characters decode to 95 bytes. For SHA-256
(digest_size=32) this overflows client_digest by 63 bytes; for MD5
(digest_size=16) the overflow is 79 bytes.

The length check at line 344 fires after the write has already happened.

The HEX branch in the same switch statement already validates the length
up front. Apply the same approach to the BASE64 branch: strip trailing
base64 padding characters, then reject any input whose data length
exceeds DIV_ROUND_UP(digest_size * 4, 3) before calling the decoder.

Stripping trailing '=' before the comparison handles both padded and
unpadded encodings. chap_base64_decode() already returns early on '=',
so the full original string is still passed to the decoder unchanged.

The mutual CHAP path decodes CHAP_C into initiatorchg_binhex, which is
kzalloc(CHAP_CHALLENGE_STR_LEN). extract_param() caps initiatorchg at
CHAP_CHALLENGE_STR_LEN characters, so at most CHAP_CHALLENGE_STR_LEN-1
base64 characters reach the decoder. The maximum decoded size,
DIV_ROUND_UP((CHAP_CHALLENGE_STR_LEN-1) * 3, 4), is less than
CHAP_CHALLENGE_STR_LEN, so no overflow is possible there. A comment is
added at the call site to document this.

Comment 7 errata-xmlrpc 2026-08-20 05:22:28 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

Via RHSA-2026:57251 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:57251

Comment 8 errata-xmlrpc 2026-08-26 03:58:45 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Via RHSA-2026:59737 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:59737

Comment 9 errata-xmlrpc 2026-08-26 05:34:16 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Via RHSA-2026:59821 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:59821

Comment 10 errata-xmlrpc 2026-09-04 00:53:00 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Via RHSA-2026:63129 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:63129

Comment 11 errata-xmlrpc 2026-09-08 00:23:49 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support

Via RHSA-2026:64767 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:64767

Comment 12 errata-xmlrpc 2026-09-09 00:57:47 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2026:65712 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:65712

Comment 13 errata-xmlrpc 2026-09-09 01:06:31 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 Extended Update Support

Via RHSA-2026:65708 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:65708

Comment 14 Jon Orris 2026-09-16 00:14:31 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2026:67721 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:67721

Comment 15 Jon Orris 2026-09-16 00:42:16 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions

Via RHSA-2026:67723 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:67723