Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
AC:H because exploitation requires a compromised or impersonated MDS; no confidentiality or integrity impact per description.
Primary rating from Vendor (Linux).
CVSS VectorVendor: Linux
Lifecycle Timeline
6DescriptionCVE.org
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ceph: cap delegated inode count in ceph_parse_deleg_inos()
ceph_parse_deleg_inos() decodes interval sets of delegated inode numbers from an MDS create-with-delegation reply. For each set it reads a 64-bit start and a 64-bit len with ceph_decode_64_safe(), which only validates that the eight bytes are present in the message, not the value, and then loops over len while inserting entries into s_delegated_inos.
len is fully attacker controlled. A malicious or compromised MDS can send one huge interval, many intervals in one reply, duplicate intervals, or repeated replies that accumulate delegated inodes on the same session. The original code bounded none of these and could spin the insert loop or grow the xarray without limit.
Bound both dimensions with a single enforcement point. Track the number of delegated inodes held by each MDS session in an atomic counter and grow it only in ceph_insert_deleg_ino(), which uses atomic_add_unless() to refuse to push the count past CEPH_MAX_DELEG_INOS. Because that helper is the only place the counter grows, the per-session population can never exceed the cap, so no separate per-session pre-check is needed. The counter is decremented when async create consumes a delegated inode or when an insert fails, incremented when a delegated inode is restored, initialized with the session xarray, and reset when reconnect destroys the xarray.
A per-session cap alone still lets one reply spin the insert loop on duplicate ranges without growing the counter, so also cap the aggregate interval length accepted from a single reply. Together these bound both the loop trip count per reply and the xarray population across replies.
The cap is a fixed, client-chosen constant rather than a value derived from the MDS. mds_client_prealloc_inos is a userspace MDS configuration option; it is never sent to the kernel client on the wire, and a server-supplied bound could not be trusted for a defensive limit in any case. The constant is set well above that option's documented default of 1000 (a generous multiple), so legitimate refill behavior is unaffected while the CPU and xarray memory a malformed delegation stream can consume stays bounded.
Impact: a malicious or compromised Ceph MDS can no longer make a client spin through an unbounded delegated-inode interval or grow one session's delegated-inode xarray without limit.
AnalysisAI
Uncontrolled resource consumption in the Linux kernel Ceph client's ceph_parse_deleg_inos() function allows a malicious or compromised Ceph MDS (Metadata Server) to trigger denial of service against any connected client. The 64-bit interval length field in MDS create-with-delegation replies is decoded without value validation, enabling a crafted reply to spin the client's insert loop indefinitely or grow the per-session delegated-inode xarray without bound, exhausting CPU or kernel memory. …
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Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata
Vulnerability AssessmentAI
| Exploitation | Exploitation requires that the attacker control or compromise a Ceph MDS server that a victim client has an active session with. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment. |
| Risk Assessment | The vendor-assigned CVSS 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N) overstates attack complexity: exploitation requires a malicious or compromised Ceph MDS, a server-side prerequisite that effectively elevates AC to High. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in. |
| Exploit Scenario | Full exploit scenario with step-by-step reproduction available after sign-in. |
| Remediation | Upgrade to Linux 6.18.51, 7.2.4, or 7.3-rc1, which contain the atomic cap enforcement in ceph_insert_deleg_ino() and the per-reply interval aggregate bound. … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report. |
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Within 24 hours, identify all systems running Linux kernel Ceph clients and verify your Linux distribution's patch availability for this vulnerability. …
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-76560
GHSA-2j45-hm4h-36gr