CVE-2026-80789 PUBLISHED

nvmet-tcp: bound SGL data length before allocating command buffers

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 26.08.2026 Published: 04.09.2026 Updated: 04.09.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

nvmet-tcp: bound SGL data length before allocating command buffers

nvmet_tcp_map_data() reads the host-controlled 32-bit sgl->length and, for the in-capsule offset descriptor (type 0x01), checks it against port->inline_data_size before use. Any other SGL descriptor type -- including the non-inline transport SGL data-block descriptor (type (NVME_TRANSPORT_SGL_DATA_DESC << 4) | NVME_SGL_FMT_TRANSPORT_A, the type a real host uses for out-of-capsule writes) skips that check entirely and falls straight through to:

<pre>cmd->req.sg = sgl_alloc(len, GFP_KERNEL, &cmd->req.sg_cnt); </pre>

with len taken directly from the wire, unbounded up to 4 GiB.

nvmet_req_init() only parses the command and never inspects sgl->length, and nvmet_check_transfer_len() -- the only other place transfer_len is validated -- runs later, from req->execute(), after the allocation has already happened. For a write command the target responds with an R2T and parks the command waiting for the host to send the data; if the host (or an unauthenticated peer that simply never follows up) never does, the sgl_alloc() buffer stays resident for the life of the command. NVMe/TCP has no mandatory authentication in the default configuration, so any peer able to reach the target portal and complete a Fabrics connect can drive this with a single crafted command, repeatable across queues and connections for amplification. This is unbounded kernel memory allocation triggered by a remote, effectively unauthenticated peer.

Validate len against the same NVMET_TCP_MAXH2CDATA ceiling this file already uses to bound per-PDU H2C data, for every SGL descriptor type, before doing any allocation. This closes the gap for the non-inline descriptor while leaving the existing, tighter inline_data_size check in place for the in-capsule case.

Runtime-verified on a v6.19 KASAN stand: with this bound in place, a crafted write command carrying an oversized non-inline SGL length is rejected before sgl_alloc() runs, where the same request previously drove an unbounded ~256 MiB kernel allocation (up to 4 GiB) that stayed resident pending an R2T the host never satisfies.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to f6e51b09cbaa5f6f6e6a3a9dafa666f76c37aab5 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to f63e89a0310264264923f84406dea05fe752de62 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to 0952541b153e258b99d39cdb03ea6919fdeb41d0 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to 25ad03d5c0e858c4b63f1e4b6d461d2af1b30b22 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to d2acc96c528d589f5827cfb90e8e9229dd9d8cb4 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to 6d27199ebe8cb223022150f74be13f154a964474 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to 14dbe37681a6a7e346fc147bb363ec7cca3180a0 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to d895e66628f939edbb98608f6e033d3d39e6e546 (excl.)
  • affected from 872d26a391da92ed8f0c0f5cb5fef428067b7f30 to 4a3f00262a044e8e15064b1a6860968bf0500bf4 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.0 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.0 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 5.10.269 to 5.10.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 5.15.220 to 5.15.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.187 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.156 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.106 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.47 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.11 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.1 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc1 to * (incl.)

References