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Fencer Vulns
high 7.4

CVE-2026-90229 json

nvme-apple: Destroy the admin queue on removal

published 2026-09-17 52 d ago modified 2026-10-30 9 d ago also EUVD-2026-81822

cvss
7.4
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 6%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

nvme-apple: Destroy the admin queue on removal

The admin queue is allocated with blk_mq_alloc_queue() but never destroyed. nvme_free_ctrl() only drops the last reference and blk_mq_exit_queue() and blk_sync_queue() never run: the hctx is never moved to q->unused_hctx_list and the timeout timer and work stay armed on a queue that is about to be freed which will eventually oops inside blk_mq_timeout_work().

This can only be triggered when the controller fails to come up and is then immediately torn down again which is why no one ever ran into this before.

Let's just copy what the pcie driver does: unquiesce and destroy the admin queue before nvme_uninit_ctrl().

With this the following WARN followed by a panic no longer happens:

WARNING: block/blk-mq.c:4390 at blk_mq_release+0x194/0x238, CPU#4: kworker/u34:4/119 CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 119 Comm: kworker/u34:4 Not tainted 7.2.0-rc1-dirty #248 PREEMPT Hardware name: Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020) (DT) Workqueue: nvme-wq apple_nvme_remove_dead_ctrl_work pstate: 61400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : blk_mq_release+0x194/0x238 lr : blk_mq_release+0x58/0x238 sp : ffffc000833a3b50 x29: ffffc000833a3b50 x28: ffff80001d0450f8 x27: ffff800020c95200 x26: 0000000000000088 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: ffff800020f36805 x23: 0000000000000000 x22: ffffc00081a86878 x21: ffff800020be9c60 x20: 0000000000000000 x19: ffff800022501698 x18: 000000000000000a x17: 7365757165722066 x16: 666f7265776f7020 x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000028 x13: 0000000000004def x12: 0000000000000003 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffc000805b4fc8 x8 : ffffc00081915820 x7 : ffffc00081c4f3c8 x6 : 0000000000000001 x5 : 0000000000000004 x4 : ffff800022498d80 x3 : ffffc000833a3b14 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff800022501698 Call trace: blk_mq_release+0x194/0x238 (P) blk_put_queue+0x8c/0xf0 nvme_free_ctrl+0x4c/0x260 device_release+0x44/0x128 kobject_put+0xa0/0x120 put_device+0x1c/0x40 nvme_uninit_ctrl+0x48/0x60 apple_nvme_remove+0x54/0xb0 platform_remove+0x28/0x40 device_remove+0x54/0x98 device_release_driver_internal+ device_release_driver+0x20/0x38 apple_nvme_remove_dead_ctrl_wor process_one_work+0x1f4/0x770 worker_thread+0x1b8/0x360 kthread+0x140/0x160 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 irq event stamp: 448 hardirqs last enabled at (447):in_unlock_irqrestore+0x74/0x80 hardirqs last disabled at (448): [<ffffc000811cf5c0>] el1_brk64+0x20/0x60 softirqs last enabled at (0): [ess+0xb28/0x2698 softirqs last disabled at (0): [<0000000000000000>] 0x0 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000096000005 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x05: level 1 translation fault Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000005, ISS2 = 0x00000000 CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagA GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [0000000000000000] user address Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000005 [#1] SMP CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 54 Comm: kwor 7.2.0-rc1-dirty #248PREEMPT Tainted: [W]=WARN Hardware name: Apple Mac mini (M1, 2020) (DT) Workqueue: kblockd blk_mq_timeou pstate: 01400005 (nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : percpu_ref_tryget_many.cons lr : percpu_ref_tryget_many.constprop.0+0xc0/0x168 sp : ffffc000829cbce0 x29: ffffc000829cbce0 x28: ffff800020be9f48 x27: ffff800013e503c0 x26: 0000000000000108 x25: 000009c05 x23: 0000000000000000 x22: ffffc000819f5000 x21: ffff800020be9f48 x20: ffff8001deda4808 x19: ffff8000a x17: 00000000580e1fac x16: ffffc00082bbbb7c x15: 0000000000000000 x14: 0000000000000028 x13: 000000001 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffffc000829cbc20 x8 : ---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.191, 6.6.157, 6.12.110, 6.18.52, 7.2.6, 7.3
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.111-1
  • linux Debian 14 7.2.6-1
  • linux-6.12 Debian 12 6.12.111-1~deb12u1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-90229

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42.1
  • linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.16
  • linux-hwe-7.0 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
  • linux-oem-7.0 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-90229

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-source openSUSE Tumbleweed 7.2.7-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11880-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.157.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-102729

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-90229 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: nvme-apple: Destroy the admin queue on removal

  • 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 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    +1 more products
    Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    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

Exploit prediction

0.17% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 6% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

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.