Bug 2541343 (CVE-2026-98119)

Summary: CVE-2026-98119 kernel: netfs: break unbuffered write when netfs_alloc_subrequest() fails
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
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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Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's netfs (network filesystem) subsystem. A local user could cause a Denial of Service (DoS) by triggering a system crash when performing unbuffered write operations under memory exhaustion conditions. This issue occurs because the kernel fails to verify that memory allocation for a write subrequest succeeded before attempting to initialize it.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-25 11:29:50 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfs: break unbuffered write when netfs_alloc_subrequest() fails

syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref below [1] following a fault injection in
netfs_alloc_subrequest(). [0]

When netfs_alloc_subrequest() fails, subreq is NULL.
Later, netfs_prepare_write() tries to initialize members of
subreq(e.g., source), the issue in [1] is triggered.

Let's handle the error of netfs_prepare_write() properly.

[0]
FAULT_INJECTION: forcing a failure.
name failslab, interval 1, probability 0, space 0, times 0
Call Trace:
 netfs_alloc_subrequest+0x116/0x3f0
 netfs_prepare_write+0x76/0x7b0
 netfs_unbuffered_write+0x75c/0x2020
 netfs_unbuffered_write_iter_locked+0x7d6/0xa80
 netfs_unbuffered_write_iter+0x442/0x720
 v9fs_file_write_iter+0xbf/0x100
 vfs_write+0x6ac/0x1050

[1]
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000000a8-0x00000000000000af]
RIP: 0010:netfs_prepare_write+0xbc/0x7b0 fs/netfs/write_issue.c:173
Call Trace:
 netfs_unbuffered_write+0x75c/0x2020 fs/netfs/direct_write.c:111
 netfs_unbuffered_write_iter_locked+0x7d6/0xa80 fs/netfs/direct_write.c:290
 netfs_unbuffered_write_iter+0x442/0x720 fs/netfs/direct_write.c:382
 v9fs_file_write_iter+0xbf/0x100 fs/9p/vfs_file.c:409
 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:595 [inline]
Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-09-28 12:58:20 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-98119.mbox