Bug 2568623 (CVE-2026-99278)

Summary: CVE-2026-99278 kernel: kernel: ksmbd: Denial of Service via unbounded sessions per connection
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 ksmbd, an in-kernel SMB (Server Message Block) server. The session management mechanism only limited pending authentication attempts rather than enforcing a limit on established sessions per connection. A remote authenticated client could exploit this flaw by repeatedly completing authentication to retain an unbounded number of valid sessions on a single connection. This excessive allocation can exhaust system memory, leading to 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 2026-11-07 14:21:42 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ksmbd: limit sessions on each connection

The pending setup limit only counts InProgress sessions. A client can
complete authentication repeatedly and retain an unbounded number of Valid
sessions on one connection.

Reserve a connection slot before allocating a session and retain a
connection reference while authentication is in progress. The first SMB3
channel takes over that reservation; binding to another connection reserves
one slot there. Reauthentication and authentication continuation reuse the
existing reservation. Return slots on allocation or insertion failure,
channel removal, and final session destruction.

Accept max_sessions_per_connection in reserved startup-request space and
default to 64 when older tools leave it zero. Keep the request size and
existing field offsets unchanged. Expose the configured limit in procfs.
The existing connection limits bound the aggregate number of sessions
without a separate global session allocation limit.