CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-63980

HighCVSS 7.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.44%

36th percentile - higher than 36% of all known CVEs

Summary

A vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's handshake mechanism for TLS connections. The handshake_req_cancel() function can be called from softirq context by the NVMe over TCP driver, causing a deadlock when acquiring the hn_lock with plain spin_lock(). The fix converts all hn_lock operations to use spin_lock_bh/spin_unlock_bh to disable softirqs.

Risk Assessment

The deadlock can cause a complete system hang or freeze of the NVMe over TCP TLS connection handler, leading to storage access disruption and potential data loss.

Recommendation

Immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit 4f7c4c7e0c4b or later). For production systems using NVMe over TCP with TLS, prioritize applying this patch.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/handshake: Use spin_lock_bh for hn_lock nvmet_tcp_state_change(), a socket callback that runs in BH context, can reach handshake_req_cancel() via nvmet_tcp_schedule_release_queue() and tls_handshake_cancel(). handshake_req_cancel() acquires hn->hn_lock with plain spin_lock(). If a process-context thread on the same CPU holds hn->hn_lock when a softirq invokes the cancel path, the lock attempt deadlocks. This is the only caller that invokes tls_handshake_cancel() from BH context; every other consumer calls it from process context. Deferring the cancel to process context in the NVMe target is not straightforward: nvmet_tcp_schedule_release_queue() must call tls_handshake_cancel() atomically with its state transition to DISCONNECTING. If the cancel were deferred, the handshake completion callback could fire in the window before the cancel runs, observe the unexpected state, and return without dropping its kref on the queue. Reworking that interlock is considerably more invasive than hardening the handshake lock. Convert all hn->hn_lock acquisitions from spin_lock/spin_unlock to spin_lock_bh/spin_unlock_bh so the lock is never taken with softirqs enabled.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS