Bug 2532508 (CVE-2026-89711)

Summary: CVE-2026-89711 kernel: NFSD: remove flawed WARN_ON_ONCE from nfsd_mode_check
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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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Network File System Daemon (NFSD). An invalid assumption in the `nfsd_mode_check()` function regarding directory lookup capabilities during NFS reexport could lead to a null pointer dereference. A remote attacker could exploit this by performing a LOOKUP operation on a specially crafted NFS reexport, potentially causing a system crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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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 2026-09-11 23:33:05 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

NFSD: remove flawed WARN_ON_ONCE from nfsd_mode_check

The header for commit e75b23f9e323 ("nfsd: check d_can_lookup in
fh_verify of directories") details the assumption that justified
adding the WARN_ON_ONCE to nfsd_mode_check(), that assumption is
invalid (in the case of NFS reexport).

When NFSD exports an NFS filesystem it is very possible for
nfsd_mode_check() to encounter a @dentry that doesn't have
i_op->lookup (see nfs_fhget()'s NFS_ATTR_FATTR_MOUNTPOINT and
NFS_ATTR_FATTR_V4_REFERRAL handling, and d_flags_for_inode()).

So remove nfsd_mode_check()'s WARN_ON_ONCE(). The nfserr_notdir
return on that branch must stay. It guards the subsequent
lookup_one_unlocked() -> __lookup_slow() path, which calls
inode->i_op->lookup() with no NULL check, so returning nfserr_notdir
is what keeps a client LOOKUP into such a @dentry from dereferencing
a NULL method pointer.