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Linux Kernel CVE-2026-68173

| EUVDEUVD-2026-55274 HIGH
2026-08-10 Linux GHSA-mxh6-x24v-wwvm
7.1
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Linux
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Severity by source

Vendor (Linux) PRIMARY
7.1 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
6.3 MEDIUM

AC:H reflects the specific failure sequence required (START_USER_RECOVERY returning -EBUSY with error silently ignored before END_USER_RECOVERY); all other metrics match the official vector.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).

CVSS VectorVendor: Linux

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

Lifecycle Timeline

5
Analysis Generated
Aug 14, 2026 - 03:43 vuln.today
CVSS changed
Aug 13, 2026 - 23:37 NVD
7.1 (HIGH)
Patch available
Aug 10, 2026 - 14:18 EUVD
CVE Published
Aug 10, 2026 - 11:59 cve.org
HIGH 7.1
CVE Published
Aug 10, 2026 - 11:59 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

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

ublk: wait on ublk_dev_ready() instead of ub->completion

ub->completion is only re-armed by a successful START_USER_RECOVERY. If the ublk server sends END_USER_RECOVERY without one - e.g. its START failed with -EBUSY and the error was ignored - the wait is satisfied by the stale completion of the previous recovery cycle, and the device is marked LIVE and the requeue list kicked while the FETCH stream is still running and ubq->canceling is still set. The kick redispatches a previously requeued request, __ublk_queue_rq_common() sees ->canceling and parks it again via __ublk_abort_rq(), and after the last FETCH clears ->canceling nothing ever kicks the requeue list again: the request is stranded there while holding its tag. If it is the flush machinery's flush_rq, every subsequent fsync piles up in uninterruptible sleep and teardown hangs on tag draining. This matches a report of a lost PREFLUSH with ext4 on top of ublk after daemon crash recovery.

ub->completion is an edge-triggered latch used as a proxy for the level condition "every queue has fetched all I/O commands", which can regress (F_BATCH's UNPREP, daemon death) and whose re-arm can be skipped. Drop it and wait on the real condition instead: the new helper ublk_wait_dev_ready_and_lock() waits on ublk_dev_ready() via wait_var_event_interruptible(), woken from ublk_mark_io_ready(), then re-checks it under ub->mutex, waiting again on regression, and returns with the mutex held and readiness guaranteed.

Readiness becomes true in the same ub->mutex critical section that clears the last queue's ->canceling, so END_USER_RECOVERY marks the device LIVE and kicks the requeue list strictly after ->canceling clears. The wait stays interruptible, so a server whose daemon died can still be signalled out. For ublk_ctrl_start_dev() this replaces the fail-fast -EINVAL on an F_BATCH ready->UNPREP regression with waiting until the device is ready again.

AnalysisAI

Premature device-live marking in the Linux kernel ublk subsystem causes stranded block I/O requests and indefinite fsync hangs on ext4 filesystems. The flaw exists in ublk's user-recovery state machine: if a ublk daemon sends END_USER_RECOVERY after START_USER_RECOVERY fails (e.g., with -EBUSY) and the error is silently ignored, a stale edge-triggered completion latch from a prior recovery cycle satisfies the kernel's readiness wait prematurely, marking the device LIVE while I/O cancellation flags are still set. Any local low-privileged user able to control or interact with a ublk server process can trigger this race, causing persistent uninterruptible-sleep hangs across all fsync calls and blocking kernel teardown - confirmed by a real report of lost PREFLUSH with ext4 on ublk after daemon crash recovery. No public exploit code and no KEV listing have been identified at time of analysis.

Technical ContextAI

The ublk subsystem (user block device, CONFIG_BLK_DEV_UBLK) allows a privileged userspace daemon to implement a block device's I/O handling. It uses a recovery protocol: START_USER_RECOVERY rearms queues, END_USER_RECOVERY signals completion. The kernel previously used ub->completion - a completion struct acting as an edge-triggered latch - to wait for the condition 'every queue has fetched all I/O commands.' This latch-based design has two critical flaws: (1) the condition is level-based and can regress (via F_BATCH UNPREP or daemon death), while the latch is edge-based and only re-armed by a successful START_USER_RECOVERY; and (2) if START_USER_RECOVERY fails with -EBUSY and the error is discarded, the latch is never re-armed, so the subsequent END_USER_RECOVERY satisfies the wait using the previous cycle's stale signal. The result is a TOCTOU-class synchronization error: the kernel proceeds to mark the ublk device LIVE and kick the requeue list while ubq->canceling is still set, causing __ublk_queue_rq_common() to re-park requeued requests via __ublk_abort_rq(). After the last FETCH clears ->canceling, no code ever re-kicks the requeue list, stranding any request still there - including the flush machinery's flush_rq. If flush_rq is stranded, all subsequent fsync operations sleep uninterruptibly (D-state) and kernel teardown hangs on tag draining. The fix replaces the completion with ublk_wait_dev_ready_and_lock(), which uses wait_var_event_interruptible() on the true readiness condition checked under ub->mutex, guaranteeing the mutex is held and readiness is confirmed before proceeding. CPE: cpe:2.3:a:linux:linux:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*. No CWE is formally assigned, but the root cause maps to CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution Using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization) and CWE-664 (Improper Control of a Resource Through its Lifetime).

RemediationAI

Apply the upstream kernel stable patches for the affected branch: commit 7dd26adf7e7d482af524e3a0cca4a81ef7c159d0, 8f188dd11a1c2ad94caeaee36ef68bb8221d4a12, or 432a9b2780c0a01caf547bd1fc2fcf28aeb8d173 from https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/. Distribution kernel updates to Linux 6.18.42 or 7.1.6 include the fix; upgrade to these versions when available from your distribution vendor. As an immediate compensating control, environments that do not use ublk-based block devices are not exposed and no action is required. For environments actively using ublk, ensure ublk daemon implementations properly handle START_USER_RECOVERY failures (specifically -EBUSY) and do not proceed to send END_USER_RECOVERY when START has not succeeded - this eliminates the triggering condition without a kernel patch. This daemon-side fix has no kernel-level side effects but requires control of the ublk server application. Disabling the ublk module (rmmod ublk_drv) eliminates the attack surface entirely but also removes ublk block device functionality.

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Moderate
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP7 Not-Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 16.0 Not-Affected

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CVE-2026-68173 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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