Bug 2536634 (CVE-2026-90140)

Summary: CVE-2026-90140 kernel: cuse: wait for pending RCU callbacks on module exit
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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 cuse module. This vulnerability, a Use-After-Free, occurs when the cuse module is unloaded before a pending Read-Copy-Update (RCU) callback has completed. This can lead to a system crash or, under specific circumstances, allow a local attacker to execute arbitrary code by reusing the freed memory.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-17 18:59:26 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

cuse: wait for pending RCU callbacks on module exit

Since commit 053fc4f755ad ("fuse: fix UAF in rcu pathwalks"),
fuse_conn_put() frees the fuse_conn through call_rcu() rather than
synchronously.  For cuse, fc->release is cuse_fc_release(), which
lives in the cuse module.  If the module is removed before the RCU
grace period ends, the callback jumps into freed module memory:

      userspace / module unload      |        RCU softirq
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 close(/dev/cuse)                    |
  cuse_channel_release()             |
   fuse_dev_release()                |
    fuse_conn_put(fch->conn)         |
     call_rcu(delayed_release) ------+---> callback queued
                                     |
 rmmod cuse                          |
  cuse_exit()                        |
   cuse_channel_destroy()            |
   ...                               |
   return                            |
                                     |
 <module text freed>                 |
                                     |  rcu_do_batch()
                                     |   delayed_release()
                                     |    fc->release()
                                     |     -> cuse_fc_release()
                                     |        ^^^ freed text!

The freed module text is unmapped by vfree(), so the jump into the
stale callback triggers a page-fault Oops.  If the virtual address
is subsequently reused, the callback could execute unrelated code
(undefined behaviour).

Fix this by calling rcu_barrier() in cuse_exit() so that any pending
fuse_conn release callback completes before the module is removed.