CriticalCVE-2026-89485

    Linux Kernel: security vulnerability (CVE-2026-89485)

    Published Last modified Sources: Debian LTS, SUSE, Debian, CVE.org, BSI

    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lockd: pin next file across nlm_inspect_file lock-drop nlm_traverse_files() pins the current file with f_count++ across a mutex_unlock for nlm_inspect_file(), but nothing pins the saved next pointer. A concurrent nlm_release_file() can kfree the next file during the unlock window, and the iterator dereferences freed memory on the next loop step.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.10.270, Linux Kernel to version 5.15.221, Linux Kernel to version 6.1.188.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 2.6.18..5.10.270
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.11..5.15.221
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.1.188
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.2..6.6.157
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.109
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.18.50
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.19..7.2.4
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.10.270
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.221
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.188
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.157
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.109
    • Linux Kernel 6.18.50
    • Linux Kernel 7.2.4
    • Linux Kernel 7.3

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Debian LTS, SUSE, Debian, CVE.org, BSI

    0.7 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 53.4

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    98.72 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    9.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    9.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.7 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    53.4
    High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lockd: pin next file across nlm_inspect_file lock-drop nlm_traverse_files() pins the current file with f_count++ across a mutex_unlock for nlm_inspect_file(), but nothing pins the saved next pointer. A concurrent nlm_release_file() can kfree the next file during the unlock window, and the iterator dereferences freed memory on the next loop step. Pin both current and next before the lock-drop. Advance by swapping the pinned cursors at the end of each iteration so next is always held alive across the unlock. Always call nlm_file_release() after dropping the iteration pin, regardless of whether the file matched the predicate. Use nlm_file_inuse(), which does a live walk of the inode lock list, rather than the cached f_locks field, so skipped files that never ran nlm_inspect_file() are evaluated correctly. Because every file in a hash bucket is now pinned and released, files skipped by the is_failover_file predicate that have no locks, blocks, shares, or external references are deleted during traversal. The old code never evaluated skipped files for cleanup. The new behavior is intentional: such files are stale and should not persist in the table.

    Source: Debian LTS Advisories, suse_csaf, Debian Security Advisories, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 2.6.18 – < 5.10.270
    • 5.11 – < 5.15.221
    • —
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.188
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.157
    • 6.13 – < 6.18.50
    • 6.19 – < 7.2.4
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.109
    • 5.10.270
    • 5.15.221
    • 7.3
    • 6.1.188
    • 6.6.157
    • 6.18.50
    • 7.2.4
    • 6.12.109

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxbookworm
    Linuxdebianlinuxtrixie
    Linuxdebianlinux-6.12bookworm

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedLinux

      1 individual change: Affected versions (publisher)

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      Affected value modified. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/89xxx/CVE-2026-89485.json">CVE-2026-89485</a>

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    2. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 5 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      Affected value modified. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/89xxx/CVE-2026-89485.json">CVE-2026-89485</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/08a455f87b14c7ff22ae3fdadda62a796a3a5572
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/350087f231c11efcd288c310707c40eab63ca583
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/550c19222c7132c888e23c9d89079ba1c9bc4cca
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e3c413f789eaf0170275c7eba523ead73d963f30

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    3. Record modifiedLinux

      CVSS V3.1: AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      CVSSadded
      —
      AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    4. ReceivedLinux

      Description added or changed

      Show 6 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Descriptionadded
      —
      In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: lockd: pin next file across nlm_inspect_file lock-drop nlm_traverse_files() pins the current file with f_count++ across a mutex_unlock for nlm_inspect_file(), but nothing pins the saved next pointer. A concurrent nlm_release_file() can kfree the next file during the unlock window, and the iterator dereferences freed memory on the next loop step. Pin both current and next before the lock-drop. Advance by swapping the pinned cursors at the end of each iteration so next is always held alive across the unlock. Always call nlm_file_release() after dropping the iteration pin, regardless of whether the file matched the predicate. Use nlm_file_inuse(), which does a live walk of the inode lock list, rather than the cached f_locks field, so skipped files that never ran nlm_inspect_file() are evaluated correctly. Because every file in a hash bucket is now pinned and released, files skipped by the is_failover_file predicate that have no locks, blocks, shares, or external references are deleted during traversal. The old code never evaluated skipped files for cleanup. The new behavior is intentional: such files are stale and should not persist in the table.
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/89xxx/CVE-2026-89485.json">CVE-2026-89485</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/41f0a6d31615fcae261bf28a0aa50050dc93a401
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/526c49cff3f72c3ec74752016380c7567040581b
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c24bdb7df2f34bdc38ca8a73796f5acb40f1830c
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e999a88133654c6dfc68487fb49da5f20dfa2d4f

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

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