Bug 2532286 (CVE-2026-89670)

Summary: CVE-2026-89670 kernel: nfsd: hold rcu across localio cmpxchg retry
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: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Network File System Daemon (nfsd) component. A race condition exists in the `nfsd_open_local_fh()` function where an `nfsd_file` object can be freed and its memory recycled while another process attempts to access it. This can lead to a use-after-free vulnerability, allowing an attacker to potentially cause memory corruption, disclose sensitive information, or execute arbitrary code.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-11 22:08:02 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

nfsd: hold rcu across localio cmpxchg retry

nfsd_file objects are freed via call_rcu (filecache.c:296), and
nfsd_file_slab is created without SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU
(KMEM_CACHE(nfsd_file, 0) at filecache.c:789), so the slab page
backing a freed nfsd_file becomes freely reclaimable once the RCU
grace period elapses.

The again: retry block in nfsd_open_local_fh() loads a pointer with
cmpxchg and then calls nfsd_file_get(new) (which is
refcount_inc_not_zero) without holding rcu_read_lock. The sole caller
nfs_open_local_fh() drops rcu_read_lock before invoking this helper,
so no outer reader-side critical section covers the load.

    CPU 0 (nfsd_open_local_fh)        CPU 1 (nfsd_file_put_local)
    -----                             -----
    new = cmpxchg(pnf, NULL, ...)
                                      nf = xchg(pnf, NULL)
                                      nfsd_file_put(nf)
                                        last ref -> call_rcu()
                                      /* grace period elapses;
                                         slab page recycled */
    nfsd_file_get(new)
      refcount_inc_not_zero(&new->nf_ref)
      /* operates on recycled memory */

A non-zero word at the nf_ref offset of the recycled object makes the
refcount bump appear to succeed, and the caller then dereferences
new->nf_net and new->nf_file out of freed memory.

Fix by taking rcu_read_lock() immediately before the cmpxchg and
releasing it on all three exits of the if (new) block: the goto-again
retry, the lost-race cleanup path, and the install-succeeded path.
nfsd_file_put() and nfsd_net_put() stay outside the RCU section so
they remain free to block.