CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98920

Unknown
Published: Translated: NVD NIST

Summary

In the Linux kernel, a bug was fixed in the netfs subsystem where direct mempool allocation calls bypassed the alloc_hooks() wrapper, causing warnings about current->alloc_tag not being set during allocation and free when CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG is enabled. The issue occurred e.g. when reading files on a CIFS mount, and allocations were missing from /proc/allocinfo.

Risk Assessment

The bug produces spurious kernel warnings and missing allocation statistics, which hampers diagnostics and may mask real memory issues. It does not directly lead to privilege escalation or data loss, but reduces system stability and monitoring quality.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (the commit introducing mempool_alloc_noreserve()). If CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG is not enabled, the risk is limited, but the update should still be scheduled in the standard cycle.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix missing alloc tagging of direct mempool allocations Commit 1d78d56c43ef ("netfs: Fix folio_queue ENOMEM in writeback by adding a mempool") added a mempool for the folio_queues and made the request, subrequest and folio_queue allocations distinguish between writeback and everything else. Writeback is part of memory reclaim and must not fail due to ENOMEM, so it allocates under GFP_NOFS through mempool_alloc(), which may dip into the pool's reserve and, if that runs empty, wait for elements to be returned. The GFP_KERNEL paths, which can return -ENOMEM to their callers, invoke the pool's ->alloc() callback directly instead. The direct call, however, skips the alloc_hooks() wrapper that the mempool_alloc() macro provides. The pool callbacks, mempool_alloc_slab() and mempool_kmalloc(), call kmem_cache_alloc_noprof() and kmalloc_noprof() and rely on current->alloc_tag having been set by the caller. With CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG=y this leads to current->alloc_tag not set WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:161 at __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook alloc_tag was not set WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:166 at __alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook at allocation and free time respectively, as reported when reading files on a CIFS mount. The allocations are also missing from /proc/allocinfo. Wrap the direct ->alloc() invocations in alloc_hooks() with a new mempool_alloc_noreserve() helper in include/linux/mempool.h, next to the other alloc_hooks()-wrapped macros such as mempool_alloc(). The GFP_KERNEL paths keep their failable allocation semantics, they just get tagged now.

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