CVE-2026-99156

Status: UPDATED  |  Advisory ID: CVE-2026-99156

Key Details

Affected Products, Subsystems & Sectors

What to Know

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

scsi: st: Fix use-after-free race between st_remove() and st_open()

st_remove() drops the probe reference on the scsi_tape with kref_put()

and only afterwards removes its index from st_index_idr. If that was the

last reference, scsi_tape_release() frees the structure while it is

still published in the idr.

scsi_tape_get(), called from st_open(), looks up the tape in

st_index_idr and takes a reference under st_ref_mutex and

st_index_lock. remove_cdevs() does not wait for opens that are already

past chrdev_open(), so an open that is blocked on st_ref_mutex while

st_remove() holds it can take the mutex as soon as st_remove() drops it,

find the freed tpnt in the idr and call kref_get() on it:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in st_open

Write of size 4 ...

st_open (drivers/scsi/st.c:254 drivers/scsi/st.c:1291)

chrdev_open

...

Freed by task ...:

kfree

st_remove (drivers/scsi/st.c:4512)

Remove the index from the idr before dropping the reference, all under

st_ref_mutex. A concurrent scsi_tape_get() now either runs first and

holds a valid reference that keeps the tape alive, or runs afterwards

and finds nothing, so st_open() fails with -ENXIO.

This restores the ordering st_remove() had before the conversion to

st_index_idr, where the tape was unpublished from scsi_tapes[] before

the final kref_put(). (NVD)

What to Do

Monitor Linux's web page for any future patch releases.

References