VulnerabilityPublished 17 Sep 2026Updated 23 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-90181: Linux kernel · ublk: avoid teardown retry loop on xarray allocation failure

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 12:55 UTC

Severity

Medium

Rated by Threat Radar · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 11% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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.

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 modifies the teardown logic to avoid retry loops caused by atomic allocation failures. Users should update to the fixed Linux kernel versions where this issue is resolved. No additional mitigation is required beyond applying the official patch.

Description

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's ublk driver causes a teardown retry loop on xarray allocation failure, leading to a potential hang during device deletion. The issue arises because the teardown loop retries the same range when an atomic allocation fails, preventing forward progress. This has been resolved by changing the teardown logic to erase ranges before dropping the lock, avoiding dependency on atomic allocations during teardown.

Impact

The vulnerability can cause the ublk device deletion process to hang indefinitely under certain fault injection conditions, leading to a denial of service scenario where the teardown path cannot make forward progress. There is no indication of privilege escalation or data corruption. The impact is limited to potential system resource hang during device teardown.

Summary

The Linux kernel vulnerability (CVE-2026-90181) affects the ublk driver where __ublk_shmem_remove_ranges() uses a temporary xarray filled under a maple tree lock with xa_store(..., GFP_ATOMIC). If the atomic allocation fails before mas_erase(), the current range remains in the tree and the function returns false, causing the outer loop to retry the same range indefinitely. This results in a teardown retry loop with no forward progress. The issue can be reproduced with radix_tree_node failslab injection after a SHMEM_ZC buffer registration. The fix removes the allocation from the teardown loop by collecting ranges in a fixed-size stack array and erasing them from the maple tree before dropping the lock, ensuring progress without relying on GFP_ATOMIC allocations.

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 24 Oct 2026, 21:52 UTC

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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