CVE-2026-89540

Summary

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

sunrpc: init gssp_lock before publishing proc entry

create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry() publishes /proc/net/rpc/use-gss-proxy via proc_create_data() before init_gssp_clnt() runs mutex_init() on sn->gssp_lock. Once the dentry is linked under proc_subdir_lock it is immediately reachable from userspace, so a write that lands in the window drives set_gssp_clnt() into mutex_lock() on a zero-initialized struct mutex.

create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(net)
  proc_create_data("use-gss-proxy", ...)   /* dentry live */
  init_gssp_clnt(sn)
    mutex_init(&sn->gssp_lock)             /* too late */

write_gssp()
  set_gssp_clnt(net)
    mutex_lock(&sn->gssp_lock)             /* uninitialized */
    gssp_rpc_create(...)
    sn->gssp_clnt = clnt
    mutex_unlock(&sn->gssp_lock)

The window spans only the two statements between proc_create_data() returning and init_gssp_clnt(), so a writer reaches it only if the registering thread is preempted there while another task is already opening the freshly published file. register_pernet_subsys() runs in preemptible context under pernet_ops_rwsem, so that preemption is possible, and the window widens on auth_rpcgss module load, when the proc entry is created for every live net namespace whose tasks are already running. A writer that wins the race locks a zero-filled struct mutex. On CONFIG_DEBUG_MUTEXES the missing magic value trips a "lock used without init" splat; on a production kernel the fast path acquires the lock via CMPXCHG(owner, 0, current). In the latter case a second writer that arrives before init_gssp_clnt() re-zeroes owner can enter set_gssp_clnt() concurrently, shut down the first writer's clnt while it is still in use, and leak the loser's clnt.

Fix by initializing sn->gssp_lock in sunrpc_init_net() so its lifetime matches the sunrpc_net it lives in. sn->gssp_clnt is already NULL from the kzalloc that backs net_generic storage, so the lazy helper is no longer needed; drop init_gssp_clnt(), its prototype, and the call from create_use_gss_proxy_proc_entry(). sunrpc.ko is a build-time dependency of auth_rpcgss.ko, so sunrpc_init_net() has always run on every netns before any auth_gss pernet init can publish the proc entry.

Affected Software

Weaknesses

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f15b87521168c2a92cb1931f532cba422f856f01
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/edeefb111d6181a4aa278f415b005efe284b9489
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3f019571928b269feebcff59926ec13294215e0e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ce1ed6159731a41fdd0b03eedbed4e147036a5a

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