CVE-2026-90186 PUBLISHED

null_blk: reject per-device queue resize for shared tag set

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 11.09.2026 Published: 17.09.2026 Updated: 17.09.2026

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

null_blk: reject per-device queue resize for shared tag set

When shared_tags is enabled, null_setup_tagset() makes the device use the global tag_set, whose driver_data stays NULL. null_map_queues() therefore falls back to the module-wide g_submit_queues/g_poll_queues instead of any per-device value.

Resizing submit_queues or poll_queues via configfs on such a device calls blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues() on the shared set, shrinking set->nr_hw_queues. __blk_mq_realloc_hw_ctxs() only grows the q->queue_hw_ctx[] allocation, so on shrink it merely exits and NULLs the now-excess hctx slots. null_map_queues(), however, keeps mapping CPUs with the unchanged g_submit_queues/g_poll_queues, so mq_map[] ends up pointing at those NULLed hctx slots. blk_mq_map_swqueue() then dereferences the NULL hctx (hctx->cpumask), crashing the kernel:

[ 460.218374] KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000098-0x000000000000009f] [ 460.219003] CPU: 24 UID: 0 PID: 1492 Comm: sh Not tainted 7.2.0-rc2+ #67 PREEMPT(full) [ 460.219792] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-4.fc41 04/01/2014 [ 460.220452] RIP: 0010:blk_mq_map_swqueue+0x4db/0x1430 ...... [ 460.228977] Call Trace: [ 460.229175] <TASK> [ 460.229354] blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues+0xd49/0x11c0 [ 460.229779] ? __pfx_blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues+0x10/0x10 [ 460.230200] nullb_update_nr_hw_queues+0x1a9/0x370 [null_blk] [ 460.230694] nullb_device_submit_queues_store+0xd9/0x170 [null_blk] [ 460.231190] ? __pfx_nullb_device_submit_queues_store+0x10/0x10 [null_blk] [ 460.231776] ? configfs_write_iter+0x35c/0x4e0 [ 460.232122] configfs_write_iter+0x286/0x4e0 [ 460.232460] vfs_write+0x52d/0xd00 [ 460.232779] ? __x64_sys_openat+0x108/0x1d0 [ 460.233106] ? __pfx_vfs_write+0x10/0x10 [ 460.233413] ? fdget_pos+0x1cf/0x4c0 [ 460.233745] ? fput_close+0x133/0x190 [ 460.234038] ? __pfx_expand_files+0x10/0x10 [ 460.234368] ksys_write+0xfc/0x1d0

Reproducer: modprobe null_blk shared_tags=1 submit_queues=64 poll_queues=1 mkdir /sys/kernel/config/nullb/dev echo 1 > /sys/kernel/config/nullb/dev/power echo 1 > /sys/kernel/config/nullb/dev/submit_queues

A per-device resize of a shared tag set is meaningless anyway, so reject it with -EINVAL in nullb_update_nr_hw_queues() when the device is bound to the global tag_set.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 45919fbfe1c487c17ea1d198534339a5e8abeae3 to 9c7bae099ddc92676ad1b7e29dd6c089e5f6196c (excl.)
  • affected from 45919fbfe1c487c17ea1d198534339a5e8abeae3 to fcd53f3e8b758c79c3f2420d28a2a1dce6fda61a (excl.)
  • affected from 45919fbfe1c487c17ea1d198534339a5e8abeae3 to f609f7bf9ce8c2fc427705c4a9f623a281239d06 (excl.)
  • affected from 45919fbfe1c487c17ea1d198534339a5e8abeae3 to 3e35ad503386a2e8a0e0460530dcbf421c79f6f2 (excl.)
  • affected from 45919fbfe1c487c17ea1d198534339a5e8abeae3 to baff300541a0012907cdde349728739fe16176d7 (excl.)
  • affected from 45919fbfe1c487c17ea1d198534339a5e8abeae3 to 1cdfe2fa62b48728a9b436fbbd3dbe4c11593e24 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.5 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.5 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.1.188 to 6.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.6.157 to 6.6.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.110 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.52 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.6 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc1 to * (incl.)

References