SOC status:Duty analyst on shift

UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityAnalyzed

CVE-2026-53394

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfsd: avoid leaking pre-allocated openowner on unconfirmed retry race When find_or_alloc_open_stateowner() encounters an unconfirmed owner, it calls release_openowner() and sets oo =…

HIGH 7.5EPSS 0.48%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.48%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfsd: avoid leaking pre-allocated openowner on unconfirmed retry race When find_or_alloc_open_stateowner() encounters an unconfirmed owner, it calls release_openowner() and sets oo = NULL. Control then falls through past the `if (oo)` guard -- which would have freed any pre-allocated `new` -- and unconditionally executes `new = alloc_stateowner(...)`. If `new` was already allocated on a prior iteration, the pointer is silently overwritten and the previous allocation (slab object + owner name buffer) is leaked. This requires a race: two NFSv4.0 OPEN threads with the same owner string, where a concurrent thread inserts a new unconfirmed owner into the hash between retry iterations. The window is narrow but repeatable under adversarial conditions. Fix by adding `goto retry` after `oo = NULL` so the already-allocated `new` is reused on the next iteration rather than overwritten.

CVSS 3.1
7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS
0.48% probability · 40th percentile
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-401
Affected
linux/linux kernel
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.