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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2026-43408 json

ceph: add a bunch of missing ceph_path_info initializers

published 2026-05-08 6 mo ago modified 2026-10-21 19 d ago also EUVD-2026-28714

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

ceph: add a bunch of missing ceph_path_info initializers

ceph_mdsc_build_path() must be called with a zero-initialized ceph_path_info parameter, or else the following ceph_mdsc_free_path_info() may crash.

Example crash (on Linux 6.18.12):

virt_to_cache: Object is not a Slab page! WARNING: CPU: 184 PID: 2871736 at mm/slub.c:6732 kmem_cache_free+0x316/0x400 [...] Call Trace: [...] ceph_open+0x13d/0x3e0 do_dentry_open+0x134/0x480 vfs_open+0x2a/0xe0 path_openat+0x9a3/0x1160 [...] cache_from_obj: Wrong slab cache. names_cache but object is from ceph_inode_info WARNING: CPU: 184 PID: 2871736 at mm/slub.c:6746 kmem_cache_free+0x2dd/0x400 [...] kernel BUG at mm/slub.c:634! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI RIP: 0010:__slab_free+0x1a4/0x350

Some of the ceph_mdsc_build_path() callers had initializers, but others had not, even though they were all added by commit 15f519e9f883 ("ceph: fix race condition validating r_parent before applying state"). The ones without initializer are suspectible to random crashes. (I can imagine it could even be possible to exploit this bug to elevate privileges.)

Unfortunately, these Ceph functions are undocumented and its semantics can only be derived from the code. I see that ceph_mdsc_build_path() initializes the structure only on success, but not on error.

Calling ceph_mdsc_free_path_info() after a failed ceph_mdsc_build_path() call does not even make sense, but that's what all callers do, and for it to be safe, the structure must be zero-initialized. The least intrusive approach to fix this is therefore to add initializers everywhere.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.7, 6.12.78, 6.17, 6.18.19, 6.19.9, 7.0
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.85-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.19.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43408

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-136.136
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.64
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1064.72
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1059.67
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.62
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1063.71
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1046.50
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1061.65

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43408

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • rv AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • perf AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • rtla AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • libperf AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • kernel-rt AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • kernel-64k AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2
  • kernel-core AlmaLinux 10 6.12.0-211.50.1.el10_2

almalinux advisories ALSA-2026:61887

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-43408 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: ceph: add a bunch of missing ceph_path_info initializers

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix available “To mitigate this issue, prevent the ceph module from being loaded. See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/41278 for instructions.”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-selftests-internal
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
24 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-457 Use of Uninitialized Variable
  • CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.