MediumCVE-2026-89540

    Linux Kernel: security vulnerability (CVE-2026-89540)

    Published Last modified Sources: Ubuntu, Debian LTS, HKCERT, SUSE, Debian, BSI, CVE.org, EUVD, Msrc Update Guide

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    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sunrpc: init gssp_lock before publishing proc entry create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry() publishes /proc/net/rpc/use-gss-proxy via proc_create_data() before init_gssp_clnt() runs mutex_init() on sn->gssp_lock. Once the dentry is linked under proc_subdir_lock it is immediately reachable from userspace, so a write that lands in the window drives set_gssp_clnt() into mutex_lock() on a zero-initialized struct mutex. create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(net) proc_create_data("use-gss-proxy", ...) /* dentry live */ init_gssp_clnt(sn) mutex_init(&sn->gssp_lock) /* too late */ write_gssp() set_gssp_clnt(net) mutex_lock(&sn->gssp_lock) /* uninitialized */ gssp_rpc_create(...) sn->gssp_clnt = clnt mutex_unlock(&sn->gssp_lock) The window spans only the two statements between proc_create_data() returning and init_gssp_clnt(), so a writer reaches it only if the registering thread is preempted there while another task is already opening the freshly published file. register_pernet_subsys() runs in preemptible context under pernet_ops_rwsem, so that preemption is possible, and the window widens on auth_rpcgss module load, when the proc entry is created for every live net namespace whose tasks are already running.

    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 3.10..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

    4.1

    XIEM Effective CVSS

    Highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    4.1

    CVSS v3

    Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Ubuntu, Debian LTS, HKCERT, SUSE, Debian, BSI, CVE.org, EUVD, Msrc Update Guide

    0.1 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 2.6

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Medium
    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
    45.21 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
    4.1 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
    4.1
    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
    0.1 %
    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
    2.6
    Low — this CVE sits in the lower 10% of all CVEs scored today.
    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
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 16 October 2026

    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
    Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
    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: sunrpc: init gssp_lock before publishing proc entry create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry() publishes /proc/net/rpc/use-gss-proxy via proc_create_data() before init_gssp_clnt() runs mutex_init() on sn->gssp_lock. Once the dentry is linked under proc_subdir_lock it is immediately reachable from userspace, so a write that lands in the window drives set_gssp_clnt() into mutex_lock() on a zero-initialized struct mutex. create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(net) proc_create_data("use-gss-proxy", ...) /* dentry live */ init_gssp_clnt(sn) mutex_init(&sn->gssp_lock) /* too late */ write_gssp() set_gssp_clnt(net) mutex_lock(&sn->gssp_lock) /* uninitialized */ gssp_rpc_create(...) sn->gssp_clnt = clnt mutex_unlock(&sn->gssp_lock) The window spans only the two statements between proc_create_data() returning and init_gssp_clnt(), so a writer reaches it only if the registering thread is preempted there while another task is already opening the freshly published file. register_pernet_subsys() runs in preemptible context under pernet_ops_rwsem, so that preemption is possible, and the window widens on auth_rpcgss module load, when the proc entry is created for every live net namespace whose tasks are already running. A writer that wins the race locks a zero-filled struct mutex. On CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES the missing magic value trips a "lock used without init" splat; on a production kernel the fast path acquires the lock via CMPXCHG(owner, 0, current). In the latter case a second writer that arrives before init_gssp_clnt() re-zeroes owner can enter set_gssp_clnt() concurrently, shut down the first writer's clnt while it is still in use, and leak the loser's clnt. Fix by initializing sn->gssp_lock in sunrpc_init_net() so its lifetime matches the sunrpc_net it lives in. sn->gssp_clnt is already NULL from the kzalloc that backs net_generic storage, so the lazy helper is no longer needed; drop init_gssp_clnt(), its prototype, and the call from create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(). sunrpc.ko is a build-time dependency of auth_rpcgss.ko, so sunrpc_init_net() has always run on every netns before any auth_gss pernet init can publish the proc entry.

    Source: Ubuntu Security Notices, Debian LTS Advisories, HKCERT (CC BY 3.0 HK) · HKCERT rating: medium, suse_csaf, Debian Security Advisories, BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF, NVD (NIST), ENISA EUVD, cvelistv5, Microsoft Security Update Guide

    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
    • 3.10 – < 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
    Red HatOpenShift
    • Container Platform
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxbookworm
    Linuxdebianlinuxtrixie
    Linuxubuntulinuxjammy
    Linuxubuntulinuxnoble
    Linuxubuntulinuxresolute
    Linuxdebianlinux-6.12bookworm
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsjammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-awsresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-5.15focal
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-6.8jammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-7.0noble
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-fipsjammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-aws-fipsnoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azurejammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-azurenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azureresolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-5.15focal
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-6.8jammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fdejammy
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fdenoble
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fderesolute
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fde-5.15focal
    Linuxubuntulinux-azure-fde-6.8jammy

    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-2026-89540.json">CVE-2026-89540</a>

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

    2. Record modifiedCISA ADP

      CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: no

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      SSVC assessmentadded
      —
      {"id":"CVE-2026-89540","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"no"},{"technicalImpact":"total"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-16T19:23:23.496498Z"}

      Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    3. 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-2026-89540.json">CVE-2026-89540</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/159a4fab7170badd6c4a553aef81cac079d6f4ee
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7f5bcdc8da15077ebe846c2756a5a17741021410
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/89c8e0733e8c46b7973503f15b1b31a8587d8030
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b3526ae3351968f6726bcbe25d8d09973ad79109

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

    4. Record modifiedLinux

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

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

    5. 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: sunrpc: init gssp_lock before publishing proc entry create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry() publishes /proc/net/rpc/use-gss-proxy via proc_create_data() before init_gssp_clnt() runs mutex_init() on sn->gssp_lock. Once the dentry is linked under proc_subdir_lock it is immediately reachable from userspace, so a write that lands in the window drives set_gssp_clnt() into mutex_lock() on a zero-initialized struct mutex. create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(net) proc_create_data("use-gss-proxy", ...) /* dentry live */ init_gssp_clnt(sn) mutex_init(&sn->gssp_lock) /* too late */ write_gssp() set_gssp_clnt(net) mutex_lock(&sn->gssp_lock) /* uninitialized */ gssp_rpc_create(...) sn->gssp_clnt = clnt mutex_unlock(&sn->gssp_lock) The window spans only the two statements between proc_create_data() returning and init_gssp_clnt(), so a writer reaches it only if the registering thread is preempted there while another task is already opening the freshly published file. register_pernet_subsys() runs in preemptible context under pernet_ops_rwsem, so that preemption is possible, and the window widens on auth_rpcgss module load, when the proc entry is created for every live net namespace whose tasks are already running. A writer that wins the race locks a zero-filled struct mutex. On CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES the missing magic value trips a "lock used without init" splat; on a production kernel the fast path acquires the lock via CMPXCHG(owner, 0, current). In the latter case a second writer that arrives before init_gssp_clnt() re-zeroes owner can enter set_gssp_clnt() concurrently, shut down the first writer's clnt while it is still in use, and leak the loser's clnt. Fix by initializing sn->gssp_lock in sunrpc_init_net() so its lifetime matches the sunrpc_net it lives in. sn->gssp_clnt is already NULL from the kzalloc that backs net_generic storage, so the lazy helper is no longer needed; drop init_gssp_clnt(), its prototype, and the call from create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(). sunrpc.ko is a build-time dependency of auth_rpcgss.ko, so sunrpc_init_net() has always run on every netns before any auth_gss pernet init can publish the proc entry.
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/89xxx/CVE-2026-89540.json">CVE-2026-89540</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f019571928b269feebcff59926ec13294215e0e
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ce1ed6159731a41fdd0b03eedbed4e147036a5a
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/edeefb111d6181a4aa278f415b005efe284b9489
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f15b87521168c2a92cb1931f532cba422f856f01

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

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