CVE-2026-89637Critical Use-After-Free vulnerability in Linux SMB client
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix UAF and buffer leak in cifs_check_trans2() for malformed secondary T2 When a valid primary TRANSACT2 response has been received (mid->resp_buf set, mid->multiRsp true) and a subsequent secondary response causes cifs_check_trans2() to return false -- either because the SMB header is invalid (malformed != 0) or because check2ndT2() rejects the PDU -- handle_mid() overwrites mid->resp_buf with the new buffer (leaking the primary buffer) and, because mid->multiRsp is set, skips the server->smallbuf/bigbuf NULL-out. When the user thread frees mid->resp_buf, server->smallbuf or server->bigbuf is left dangling; the demux thread reuses it for the next packet, resulting in a use-after-free. Combine both early-exit conditions and, when mid->multiRsp is already set, abort the pending transaction inline: set multiEnd, call dequeue_mid() with malformed=true, and return true so handle_mid() exits without touching mid->resp_buf or the server buffer pointers.
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A critical Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel SMB client (CIFS). A malicious or compromised SMB server could exploit this flaw to cause memory corruption or potentially execute arbitrary code on the client system.
Severity
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HEPSS
Technical description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix UAF and buffer leak in cifs_check_trans2() for malformed secondary T2 When a valid primary TRANSACT2 response has been received (mid->resp_buf set, mid->multiRsp true) and a subsequent secondary response causes cifs_check_trans2() to return false -- either because the SMB header is invalid (malformed != 0) or because check2ndT2() rejects the PDU -- handle_mid() overwrites mid->resp_buf with the new buffer (leaking the primary buffer) and, because mid->multiRsp is set, skips the server->smallbuf/bigbuf NULL-out. When the user thread frees mid->resp_buf, server->smallbuf or server->bigbuf is left dangling; the demux thread reuses it for the next packet, resulting in a use-after-free. Combine both early-exit conditions and, when mid->multiRsp is already set, abort the pending transaction inline: set multiEnd, call dequeue_mid() with malformed=true, and return true so handle_mid() exits without touching mid->resp_buf or the server buffer pointers.