VulnerabilityPublished 17 Sep 2026Updated 23 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-90173: Linux kernel · smb: smbdirect: free completion queues with ib_free_cq()

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.8 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 13:47 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.8Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 45% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 17 Sep 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-c82p-5m8q-6jh9

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-aws-6.14`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws-6.14?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1007.7~24.04.1 – 6.14.0-1018.18~24.04.1 11 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-aws-6.17`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws-6.17?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1005.5~24.04.2 – 6.17.0-1020.20~24.04.1 10 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure-6.11`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-6.11?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.11.0-1008.8~24.04.1 – 6.11.0-1018.18~24.04.1 7 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure-6.14`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-6.14?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1010.10~24.04.1 – 6.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1 5 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure-6.17`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-6.17?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.17.0-1008.8~24.04.1 – 6.17.0-1022.22 10 affected builds	Fixed in–
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.14`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-6.14?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected 6.14.0-1012.12~24.04.1 – 6.14.0-1017.17~24.04.1 5 affected builds	Fixed in–

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A fix is available that replaces ib_destroy_cq() with ib_free_cq() to safely free completion queues. Users should apply the official Linux kernel patch that addresses this issue. Since this is a kernel vulnerability, updating to a patched kernel version is the recommended remediation.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: smbdirect: free completion queues with ib_free_cq() smbdirect_connection_destroy_qp() creates the send and receive completion queues with ib_alloc_cq_any(), which for IB_POLL_WORKQUEUE arms an internal completion handler that runs ib_cq_poll_work() on a workqueue. Tearing those CQs down with ib_destroy_cq() frees them without first cancelling that poll work. If the provider posts a completion late -- for example Soft-RoCE (rxe) posting an RNR error from rxe_receiver() after rdma_destroy_qp() -- the handler re-queues ib_cq_poll_work() on the already-freed CQ, and a follow-on access faults in rxe_req_notify_cq(). Use ib_free_cq(), which cancel_work_sync()es the poll work before freeing the CQ, so no completion handler can run against a freed queue. [ 1236.599526] ================================================================== [ 1236.602142] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ib_cq_poll_work+0xd0/0x1a0 [ 1236.605524] Read of size 8 at addr ffff888111865800 by task kworker/4:1H/82 [ 1236.609017] [ 1236.609270] CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 82 Comm: kworker/4:1H Not tainted 7.2.0-rc3-next-20260717-virtme #110 PREEMPT(lazy) [ 1236.609287] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014 [ 1236.609498] Workqueue: ib-comp-wq ib_cq_poll_work [ 1236.609525] Call Trace: [ 1236.609536] <TASK> [ 1236.609545] __dump_stack+0x21/0x60 [ 1236.609562] dump_stack_lvl+0xc2/0x100 [ 1236.609573] print_address_description+0x77/0x200 [ 1236.609587] ? ib_cq_poll_work+0xd0/0x1a0 [ 1236.609597] print_report+0x58/0x70 [ 1236.609607] kasan_report+0x117/0x150 [ 1236.609623] ? ib_cq_poll_work+0xd0/0x1a0 [ 1236.609636] ? process_scheduled_works+0x954/0x1600 [ 1236.609650] ib_cq_poll_work+0xd0/0x1a0 [ 1236.609662] ? process_scheduled_works+0x954/0x1600 [ 1236.609674] process_scheduled_works+0xc22/0x1600 [ 1236.609698] ? __pfx_process_scheduled_works+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609713] ? __pfx_assign_work+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609726] ? lock_is_held_type+0x7b/0x110 [ 1236.609741] worker_thread+0x975/0xee0 [ 1236.609757] ? __pfx_do_raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609775] ? __kthread_parkme+0x21e/0x260 [ 1236.609789] kthread+0x3a6/0x490 [ 1236.609800] ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609809] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609820] ret_from_fork+0x55a/0xa20 [ 1236.609835] ? __pfx_ret_from_fork+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609850] ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 [ 1236.609861] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 1236.609880] </TASK> [ 1236.609886] [ 1236.661292] Allocated by task 5076: [ 1236.662640] kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 [ 1236.663842] __kasan_kmalloc+0x72/0x90 [ 1236.664763] __kmalloc_noprof+0x2b0/0x5d0 [ 1236.665356] __ib_alloc_cq+0x284/0x1000 [ 1236.666573] __ib_alloc_cq_any+0x23e/0x340 [ 1236.668654] smbdirect_connection_create_qp+0x6f7/0x1070 [ 1236.669757] smbdirect_accept_connect_request+0x500/0x1ca0 [ 1236.672625] smbdirect_listen_rdma_event_handler+0x1655/0x1c50 [ 1236.673930] cma_listen_handler+0x1bf/0x260 [ 1236.674923] cma_cm_event_handler+0x128/0x380 [ 1236.676926] cma_ib_req_handler+0x2d3d/0x4de0 [ 1236.678368] cm_process_work+0xb0/0x530 [ 1236.680454] cm_queue_work_unlock+0xb1/0x230 [ 1236.681673] cm_work_handler+0x969f/0xdca0 [ 1236.682704] process_scheduled_works+0xc22/0x1600 [ 1236.683447] worker_thread+0x975/0xee0 [ 1236.685901] kthread+0x3a6/0x490 [ 1236.688164] ret_from_fork+0x55a/0xa20 [ 1236.689522] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 1236.690073] [ 1236.690378] Freed by task 5137: [ 1236.692242] kasan_save_track+0x3e/0x80 [ 1236.694272] kasan_save_free_info+0x40/0x50 [ 1236.695514] __kasan_slab_free+0x3a/0x60 [ 1236.696773] kfree+0x14e/0x4e0 [ 1236.697216] ib_destroy_cq_user+0x18d/0x250 [ 1236.699817] smbdirect_connection_destroy_qp+0xf2/0x280 [ 1236.702115] smbdirect_socket_destroy_sync+0x1607/0x2720 [ 1236.704062] smbdirect_socket_release+0x140/0x280 [ 1236.705286] smb_direct_free_transpor ---truncated---

Impact

Successful exploitation can cause a kernel use-after-free, leading to potential system crashes or arbitrary code execution in kernel context. The CVSS score of 9.8 reflects critical impact with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability consequences.

Summary

The vulnerability in the Linux kernel's smbdirect module arises from improper teardown of completion queues created with ib_alloc_cq_any(). The original code used ib_destroy_cq() to free these queues without cancelling the internal poll work handler (ib_cq_poll_work()) that could still be scheduled. If a provider posts a completion after the queue is freed, the poll work handler runs against freed memory, causing a use-after-free fault. The fix replaces ib_destroy_cq() with ib_free_cq(), which synchronously cancels the poll work before freeing the completion queue, preventing use-after-free conditions.

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 19 Sep 2026, 01:53 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats