CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-89538

CriticalCVSS 9.8
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.20%

10th percentile - higher than 10% of all known CVEs

Summary

A vulnerability was fixed in the Linux kernel's gss_krb5_unwrap_v2() function in the SUNRPC module. A Kerberos v2 token with an 'extra count' (ec) field larger than the plaintext length, even when sent by an authenticated peer with a valid GSS context, left the xdr_buf in an inconsistent state (zero length, mismatched iov lengths). The fix rejects such tokens before calling xdr_buf_trim(), returning a GSS_S_DEFECTIVE_TOKEN error.

Risk Assessment

The vulnerability can lead to inconsistent buffer state in the kernel during Kerberos token processing, potentially causing a system crash or other memory corruption effects. However, it requires a valid GSS context, so the risk is limited to authenticated peers.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix for CVE-2026-89538. If updating is not possible, consider limiting trust to peers that can send Kerberos v2 tokens.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: SUNRPC: Reject krb5 v2 wrap tokens with oversized ec field gss_krb5_unwrap_v2() sets buf->len to a logical length, which can be much smaller than head[0].iov_len (the allocated receive-page capacity). It then calls xdr_buf_trim() with a trim length derived from the 16-bit "extra count" (ec) field in the Kerberos v2 token header. The ec field is authenticated by the post-decrypt memcmp() against the encrypted header copy, so a randomly-mutated value is rejected. However, any peer holding a valid GSS context can legitimately encrypt a token whose ec exceeds the plaintext length. Per RFC 4121, such a token is structurally malformed. Although xdr_buf_trim() now clamps the buf->len subtraction to avoid unsigned underflow, the buffer is still left in a semantically invalid state (zero length, inconsistent iov lengths) when ec is oversized. Reject these tokens before calling xdr_buf_trim(), giving callers a well-defined GSS_S_DEFECTIVE_TOKEN error and keeping the xdr_buf internally consistent. The wrapped blob begins at a nonzero offset -- both callers pass len as offset + opaque_len -- so buf->len still counts the offset bytes that precede the blob. Compare the trim length against the remaining wrapped segment, buf->len - offset, rather than the whole buffer; comparing against buf->len alone leaves an offset-wide window in which an oversized ec passes the test and xdr_buf_trim() cuts into the bytes ahead of the blob.

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