CVE-2026-89695

nfsd: cap decoded POSIX ACL count to bound sort cost

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: September 11, 2026 at 07:46 PM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 09:18 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfsd: cap decoded POSIX ACL count to bound sort cost nfsd4_decode_posixacl() reads a u32 entry count off the wire and passes it straight to posix_acl_alloc() and sort_pacl_range(). The latter is an O(n^2) bubble sort, so a client-chosen count drives unbounded CPU in the server's compound processing path. nfsd4_decode_posixacl() xdr_stream_decode_u32(&count) /* uncapped u32 */ posix_acl_alloc(count, GFP_KERNEL) sort_pacl_range(*acl, 0, count - 1) /* O(n^2) bubble sort */ The encoder side in the same file already rejects ACLs whose a_count exceeds NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES, but the decoder introduced in commit 5fc51dfc2eb1 ("NFSD: Add support for XDR decoding POSIX draft ACLs") omitted the symmetric check. Fix by rejecting a wire count greater than NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES with nfserr_inval, before any allocation, so the sort is bounded by NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES^2 comparisons. While we're in here, also fix the nfserr_resource return if posix_acl_alloc() fails. That's not a legal error code for v4.1+. Change it to return nfserr_jukebox as that's more appropriate for memory allocation failures.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

5fc51dfc2eb160bd7ab3251ab1767cacf9c8bf057.0
Vendor states this is fixed in 4bc1108e876153a2dd6d874052b99182c3603135 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in ea14d71d6ecb925673761bcf79f781f7dc9042cc (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.0 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2.4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3-rc1 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

CVSS

7.5HIGHLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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