Bug 2540527 (CVE-2026-97506)

Summary: CVE-2026-97506 kernel: crypto: ixp4xx - fix buffer chain unwind on allocation failure
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 Intel IXP4xx crypto driver. When memory allocation fails while constructing buffer descriptor chains for cryptographic operations, the driver attempts to access an invalid null pointer. A local user could exploit this flaw under low-memory conditions to trigger a kernel crash, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-24 17:07:46 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

crypto: ixp4xx - fix buffer chain unwind on allocation failure

chainup_buffers() builds a linked list of buffer descriptors for a
scatterlist. If dma_pool_alloc() fails while constructing the list, the
current code sets buf to NULL and later dereferences it unconditionally
at the end of the function:

  buf->next = NULL;
  buf->phys_next = 0;

This can lead to a null-pointer dereference on allocation failure.

If the failure happens after part of the descriptor chain has already
been allocated and DMA-mapped, the partially constructed chain also
needs to be released.

Fix this by terminating the partially constructed chain on allocation
failure and letting the callers unwind it via their existing cleanup
paths. Also fix ablk_perform() to preserve the hook pointers before
checking for failure, so partially built chains can be freed correctly.