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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-43188

| EUVDEUVD-2026-27749 MEDIUM
2026-05-06 Linux GHSA-qpxp-qjrm-7f7r
5.5
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY
5.5 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
vuln.today AI
5.5 MEDIUM

Local filesystem write access on an fscrypt-enabled Ceph mount suffices (AV:L/PR:L); memory pressure is attacker-controllable (AC:L); only availability is impacted via kernel worker oops.

3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
SUSE
MEDIUM
qualitative

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

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

Lifecycle Timeline

4
Analysis Generated
Jul 24, 2026 - 01:05 vuln.today
CVSS changed
May 11, 2026 - 20:52 NVD
5.5 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
May 06, 2026 - 13:32 EUVD
CVE Published
May 06, 2026 - 11:27 nvd
MEDIUM 5.5

DescriptionCVE.org

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ceph: do not propagate page array emplacement errors as batch errors

When fscrypt is enabled, move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() may fail because it needs to allocate bounce buffers to store the encrypted versions of each folio. Each folio beyond the first allocates its bounce buffer with GFP_NOWAIT. Failures are common (and expected) under this allocation mode; they should flush (not abort) the batch.

However, ceph_process_folio_batch() uses the same rc variable for its own return code and for capturing the return codes of its routine calls; failing to reset rc back to 0 results in the error being propagated out to the main writeback loop, which cannot actually tolerate any errors here: once ceph_wbc.pages is allocated, it must be passed to ceph_submit_write() to be freed. If it survives until the next iteration (e.g. due to the goto being followed), ceph_allocate_page_array()'s BUG_ON() will oops the worker.

Note that this failure mode is currently masked due to another bug (addressed next in this series) that prevents multiple encrypted folios from being selected for the same write.

For now, just reset rc when redirtying the folio to prevent errors in move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() from propagating. Note that move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() is careful never to return errors on the first folio, so there is no need to check for that. After this change, ceph_process_folio_batch() no longer returns errors; its only remaining failure indicator is locked_pages == 0, which the caller already handles correctly.

AnalysisAI

Kernel worker crash (BUG_ON oops) in the Linux kernel Ceph filesystem driver occurs when fscrypt encryption is enabled and GFP_NOWAIT bounce buffer allocations fail during writeback batch processing. A local user with write access to an fscrypt-encrypted Ceph mount can trigger this under memory pressure, causing the writeback loop to pass a stale page array pointer to ceph_allocate_page_array(), firing its BUG_ON assertion and crashing the worker. No public exploit is identified; EPSS of 0.02% (4th percentile) and absence from CISA KEV confirm negligible real-world exploitation activity.

Technical ContextAI

The vulnerability resides in ceph_process_folio_batch() within the Linux kernel's Ceph filesystem driver (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux). When fscrypt is active on a Ceph mount, the writeback path invokes move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() to encrypt dirty folios into bounce buffers before committing writes. Bounce buffers for folios beyond the first are allocated using GFP_NOWAIT, a non-blocking allocation flag explicitly designed to fail under memory pressure rather than stall the caller. The root cause is variable aliasing: ceph_process_folio_batch() reuses a single rc variable for both its own return status and the return codes of subroutine calls. When move_dirty_folio_in_page_array() returns an allocation error, rc is not reset to 0, so the error propagates into the main writeback loop. The writeback loop cannot safely handle this error once ceph_wbc.pages has been allocated - the page array must be handed to ceph_submit_write() for deallocation. If execution instead re-enters the allocation path, ceph_allocate_page_array()'s BUG_ON assertion fires and oopses the kernel worker. The description notes this failure mode is currently masked by a separate concurrent bug (being fixed in the same patch series) that prevents multiple encrypted folios from being selected for the same write batch, making organic triggering extremely unlikely without both bugs coexisting. No CWE is formally assigned, but this is conceptually an improper error handling / variable reuse flaw (analogous to CWE-703/CWE-391).

RemediationAI

Upgrade to a fixed Linux kernel version: 6.18.16, 6.19.6, or 7.0, which reset rc after a folio redirty operation in ceph_process_folio_batch() to prevent error propagation. Upstream fix commits are available at https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/746840c87d76b614b14d9337c466ff022fc49823, https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4c0d84c788d89c167abf0bf84fd37890c4c84f08, and https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/707104682e3c163f7c14cdd6b07a3e95fb374759. As a compensating control, disabling fscrypt on Ceph mounts entirely eliminates the vulnerable code path - the trade-off is loss of at-rest encryption for Ceph-stored data. Restricting local user write access to Ceph mounts reduces attacker surface but does not remove the vulnerability. Downstream Red Hat and SUSE users should apply distribution-provided kernel updates once available.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Medium
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 Fixed

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CVE-2026-43188 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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