HIGH Introduced in 5.0
nvme-tcp DataIn Short
CVE-2026-89480
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
KernelScan AI9.1CRITICAL
01Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nvme-tcp: reject a read that transferred too few bytes nvme_tcp_recv_data() completes a request once the current C2HData PDU has been consumed. Nothing compares the total bytes received against the length the command asked for: struct nvme_tcp_request has no receive-side counter, queue->data_remaining is per queue, and blk_mq_end_request() completes for blk_rq_bytes(rq) unconditionally with no residual concept anywhere above. A controller can therefore answer a 4096-byte read with 512 bytes and have it reported as a complete read; user space then gets 4096 bytes of which 3584 are whatever was already in the page. I reproduced that with a test target. Count the bytes received and refuse to complete a successful read whose count does not match, at the two NVME_TCP_F_DATA_SUCCESS paths and in nvme_tcp_process_nvme_cqe(). The success test shifts req->status right by one, because the driver keeps the wire value there and shifts it on completion, so the check must see what the completion path will see. Only REQ_OP_READ is checked, because there the length comes from the sectors the request covers; a passthrough command is built by its submitter, which picks both command and buffer, so the kernel has nothing to compare against.
02KernelScan AI Analysis
Risk summary
A malicious or compromised NVMe-oF TCP controller can return fewer bytes than requested for a read command, and the host driver will complete the read as fully successful. User space receives a buffer whose trailing bytes contain stale page contents, leading to disclosure of kernel memory and potential data integrity violations.
Vulnerability analysis
The NVMe over TCP host driver completes read requests as soon as the controller's data transfer finishes, without verifying that the total bytes received match the requested transfer length. A controller can therefore answer a 4096-byte read with only 512 bytes and have it reported as a complete, successful read; the remaining bytes in the user buffer are whatever was already in the page, exposing stale data. The fix adds a per-request receive counter and refuses to complete a successful read whose received byte count does not match the requested length, returning a protocol error instead. This path is reachable from any NVMe-oF TCP controller the host connects to, requiring no local privileges beyond the ability to present a malicious storage target.
Lifecycle
03Fix Versions
| Branch | Introduced | Fixed in | Patch commit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.12 | 5.0 | 6.12.109 | 99066cf9bba1 |
| 5.15 | 5.0 | 5.15.221 | a5c1bb0fb1ba |
| 6.1 | 5.0 | 6.1.188 | aa107e3a68f4 |
| 6.6 | 5.0 | 6.6.157 | fca3ebb63e5c |
| mainline | 5.0 | 7.3-rc1 | 7fa3f73f6c8d |
| 7.2 | 5.0 | 7.2.4 | 832a685efeb5 |
| 6.18 | 5.0 | 6.18.50 | 8a02ad98798f |
| cip/6.12 | 5.0 | 6.12.111-cip32 | 99066cf9bba1 |