From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: AL-KERNEL To: kernel-cve@kernelcve.org Subject: [CVE-2026-89860][MODERATE 7.0] scsi: qla2xxx: Initialize NVMe abort_work once at submission Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:33:58 -0400 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-AL-KERNEL-CVE: CVE-2026-89860 X-AL-KERNEL-Priority: MODERATE 7.0 X-AL-KERNEL-Severity: MODERATE 7.0 X-AL-KERNEL-Base-Severity: MODERATE X-AL-KERNEL-KPANIC: YES X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore: 5 X-AL-KERNEL-ActionableScore-Lower: 4 X-AL-KERNEL-Commit: b403700ac62fbf3c310196386e125879a182efcf List-Id: CVE: CVE-2026-89860 Priority: MODERATE 7.0 AL-KERNEL base severity: MODERATE KPANIC flag: YES Patch: scsi: qla2xxx: Initialize NVMe abort_work once at submission Commit: b403700ac62fbf3c310196386e125879a182efcf Upstream patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=b403700ac62fbf3c310196386e125879a182efcf Original CVE announcement: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-89860 Analysis date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:33:58 -0400 ActionableScore: 5 ActionableScore lower bound: 4 Actionable bucket: Actionable Moderate / Strong Important candidate requiring manual review Manual review required: YES Summary: No one-sentence report phrase was found. ====================================================================== ABOUT THIS REPORT ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-89860 is available here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-89860 The original announcement does not normally provide a security severity estimate, CVSS assessment, or enough information to determine whether the reported kernel bug represents a practically relevant security issue. This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. It combines an autonomous classifier with LLM-assisted technical analysis and a separate ActionableScore mechanism. The purpose of this report is to prioritize Linux kernel CVEs before manual review, identify cases that require prompt investigation, and support automatic closure of issues that are unlikely to have meaningful security impact. Published priority for this report: MODERATE 7.0 Manual review required: YES A detailed explanation of the methodology and priority rules is included at the end of this message. ====================================================================== AL-KERNEL CLASSIFICATION RESULT ====================================================================== CVE-2026-89860 MODERATE https://www.kernelcve.org/list/?q=CVE-2026-89860 CHECK WITH IMPACT FROM ORIG NN MODERATE Maybe valid. Check manually. Hints by AL-KERNEL: The best (paranoid) CVSS is 'AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H';CWE-362;CWE-665;*CWE-787;Other CVSS 'AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H';BEST CVSS score: '6.4';DESCR 'A race in the qla2xxx FC-NVMe abort path can reinitialize priv abort_work with INIT_WORK() while the same work_struct is already queued. A repeated abort for the same command, for example from concurrent transport teardown and a timeout driven abort, can reset workqueue state and corrupt the workqueue list. This can lead to a kernel crash or a looping worker, so the base impact is denial of service. For the CVSS the PR:N is used for the paranoid storage fabric scenario because an attacker controlling or disrupting the FC-NVMe target or fabric may trigger repeated abort conditions without a local account on the host. The issue is adjacent network reachable through the storage fabric rather than reachable over the public Internet. Impact is at least availability loss and in worst case may allow limited confidentiality or integrity impact due to kernel memory corruption, so it should be reviewed manually.';YES REQUIRES MANUAL CHECK; ,and ActionableScore result is Actionable Moderate / Strong Important candidate requiring manual review (with actual score 5) YES DANGER INIT SIMPLEFIX NVME HARDWARE LINUS KPANIC NO NO checked ====================================================================== ACTIONABLESCORE ANALYSIS ====================================================================== ActionableScore=5 ActionableScoreLower=4 PrimitiveClass=CLASS_B RealUAF=NO HostAdminRequired=UNKNOWN NamespaceScopedPrivilege=NO ImportantCandidate=YES ManualReview=REQUIRED AutoDowngradeAllowed=NO 1. ActionableScore * Raw conservative score: 3 * Conservative score: 4 * Applied conservative floor/cap: manual-review safety floor for concrete active kernel workqueue list corruption, 3 -> 4 * Raw paranoid score: 5 * Paranoid score: 5 * Applied paranoid floor/cap: none * Final recommended bucket: **Actionable Moderate / Strong Important candidate requiring manual review**:: 2. Signal breakdown Positive signals: * +2: Concrete active kernel object/list corruption. The patch establishes that INIT_WORK() can reinitialize an already queued work_struct, resetting its list head and pending bit while workqueue state is live. * +1: Reliable kernel crash / strong DoS. The commit explicitly states that the corrupted workqueue state can lead to crashes or a looping worker. * +1 paranoid: Adjacent storage-fabric reachability concern. The vulnerable path is in FC-NVMe abort processing, and repeated aborts may be influenced by target/fabric disruption or teardown/timeout interactions, but this is not proven as direct public network reachability. * +1 paranoid: Unresolved active-list corruption leverage. The corrupted object is not passive metadata. It is an active workqueue structure participating in kernel scheduling/list operations, so manual Important-vs-Moderate review is justified. Negative or non-awarded signals: * Controlled reclaim not demonstrated. * Arbitrary or directed kernel write not demonstrated. * Callback or function-pointer control not demonstrated. * Real UAF not established. This is workqueue state corruption from reinitialization of a live queued work item, not a demonstrated post-free use. * Concrete repeated release/refcount signal not awarded. The final kref_put()/release callback is mentioned for safe reuse after completion, but the bug is not a second put/release on the same dangling reference. * C/I impact not awarded conservatively. Limited C:L/I:L may be defensible only as paranoid CVSS-style treatment due to kernel list corruption, not as an established ActionableScore disclosure or integrity primitive. * Extra availability point not awarded. The crash and looping worker are the same availability consequence. * Race/timing penalty not applied. The condition involves repeated aborts and concurrency, but the supplied evidence does not prove a narrow one-shot race that is externally uncontrollable. * Hardware rarity penalty not applied. qla2xxx is hardware-specific, but the prompt requires more than driver specificity to subtract for rare hardware. 3. Reachability analysis The vulnerable functions are qla_nvme_fcp_abort() and qla_nvme_ls_abort() in the qla2xxx FC-NVMe path. A repeated abort for the same command can occur from concurrent transport teardown and timeout-driven abort handling. The complete attacker model is not fully proven from the supplied patch. A local host administrator can likely influence driver teardown and recovery, but host-admin-only reachability is not positively established. A storage-fabric attacker or misbehaving FC-NVMe target may be able to induce abort and timeout behavior without a local account on the host, but the patch does not fully prove that one external attacker controls the complete trigger sequence. Therefore: * HostAdminRequired=UNKNOWN, not YES, because host-admin requirement is not positively established. * HostAdminRequired is not NO, because below-host-admin complete triggering is not fully proven. * NamespaceScopedPrivilege=NO, because this is not a namespace-scoped capability path. * Prior setup requires qla2xxx FC-NVMe deployment and suitable hardware/fabric configuration. * The bug is adjacent/storage-fabric exposed rather than ordinary AV:N public Internet exposed. * Race repeatability appears plausible through repeated abort conditions, but exact reliability is not established. 4. Primitive and severity interpretation The exact primitive is reinitialization of a queued work_struct. INIT_WORK() resets internal workqueue state, including list linkage and pending state. If called while the same work item is already queued, it can corrupt the workqueue list. This is an active structured kernel object corruption issue, not fixed stale storage. It is also not a demonstrated UAF and not a concrete repeated refcount release. The demonstrated consequence is kernel crash or a looping worker. The speculative consequence is stronger exploitation from active kernel list corruption, but no controlled reclaim, arbitrary write, callback control, or privilege escalation is established. PrimitiveClass=CLASS_B because a real active kernel list/object corruption primitive exists, but it is not sufficiently controlled to be CLASS_A. ImportantCandidate=YES because corruption of live workqueue state leaves meaningful exploitation leverage unresolved. AutoDowngradeAllowed=NO because automatically closing this as ordinary crash-only DoS would discard a concrete active kernel corruption primitive. Likely operational severity is actionable Moderate, with Strong Important review warranted if external FC-NVMe fabric triggering or more controlled workqueue corruption can be demonstrated. 5. One-sentence report phrase A race in qla2xxx FC-NVMe abort handling can reinitialize an already queued abort_work item, corrupting live workqueue state and causing a kernel crash or looping worker, with storage-fabric triggered exploitation plausible but not fully proven. 6. Manual review recommendation MANUAL CHECK REQUIRED Concrete active kernel workqueue list corruption is established, and the complete reachability and exploitation leverage are not resolved by the small patch. 7. Call-site confidence Call-site confidence: medium ====================================================================== UPSTREAM PATCH SUMMARY ====================================================================== Patch: scsi: qla2xxx: Initialize NVMe abort_work once at submission Commit: b403700ac62fbf3c310196386e125879a182efcf Upstream URL: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=b403700ac62fbf3c310196386e125879a182efcf Commit description: qla_nvme_fcp_abort() and qla_nvme_ls_abort() ran INIT_WORK() on priv->abort_work immediately before schedule_work(). INIT_WORK() reinitializes the work_struct, resetting its list head and clearing the pending bit. If an abort is issued more than once for the same command (for example, concurrent transport teardown and a timeout-driven abort), the second INIT_WORK() reinitializes a work item that is already queued, which can corrupt the workqueue list and lead to crashes or a looping worker. Initialize priv->abort_work once at command submission, next to the existing per-command spin_lock_init(&priv->cmd_lock), and leave only schedule_work() in the abort paths. schedule_work() already does nothing when the work item is still pending, so a repeated abort no longer disturbs an in-flight work item. The command is not returned to the transport until the final kref_put()/release callback runs after abort_work has completed, so the work item is idle before priv is reused and the single submission-time INIT_WORK() is safe. Fixes: e473b30 ("scsi: qla2xxx: Add FC-NVMe abort processing") Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Signed-off-by: Nilesh Javali Reviewed-by: Hannes Reinecke Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260723050413.3897522-52-njavali@marvell.com Signed-off-by: Martin K. Petersen (Oracle) Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman Changed files: drivers/scsi/qla2xxx/qla_nvme.c Diff excerpt: Not included in this email. See the upstream URL for the full patch. Full patch: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=b403700ac62fbf3c310196386e125879a182efcf ====================================================================== DETAILED REPORT METHODOLOGY ====================================================================== The original Linux kernel CVE announcement for CVE-2026-89860 can be found here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/?q=CVE-2026-89860 The original CVE announcement normally does not include a security-level estimate. In particular, it may not contain a CVSS assessment, an impact level, or enough information to determine whether the reported bug is a practically relevant security issue. One purpose of this parallel CVE list is to provide that missing technical and prioritization information. The original goal of the AL-KERNEL project was to prioritize Linux kernel CVE analysis automatically before manual review. The system can also help identify non-security issues that may be suitable for automatic closure. This report was generated by AL-KERNEL, an AI-assisted Linux kernel vulnerability analysis system developed by Alexander Larkin. The first analysis stage combines an autonomous classifier with additional LLM-based analysis. The autonomous classifier runs locally on a CPU and is based on a backpropagation neural network. Together, these mechanisms produce a technical vulnerability description, identify likely weakness types, estimate CVSS severity, and provide input for ActionableScore. Two CVSS estimates are retained because incomplete kernel vulnerability information often permits more than one defensible interpretation: Conservative CVSS vector: AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H The Best / paranoid CVSS vector: AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H The Best / paranoid CVSS score: 6.4 The conservative vector represents a lower-impact interpretation. The Best/paranoid vector intentionally represents a plausible upper-bound interpretation and should not automatically be treated as demonstrated real-world impact. CVSS may also need to be adjusted for a particular Linux deployment, because actual reachability, privileges, enabled kernel configuration, hardware, namespaces, exposed device nodes, and other environmental conditions can differ significantly between systems. A separate ActionableScore mechanism evaluates practical remediation urgency. Its analysis may include reachability, attack prerequisites, subsystem exposure, memory-corruption characteristics, denial-of-service reliability, and possible confidentiality, integrity, or privilege-escalation impact. Conservative ActionableScore: 4 Paranoid ActionableScore: 5 The final base severity is taken directly from the second tab-separated field of the AL-KERNEL classification result. ActionableScore does not replace or independently override that final AL-KERNEL decision, and if ActionableScore adjusted impact level of ALKERNEL, then you would see self-readable flags above like INCREASED_TO_HIGH_BASED_ON_ACTIONABLESCOREHIGHEREQTHAN7. For an AL-KERNEL result of MODERATE, this report uses the following additional presentation split: ActionableScore below 5 -> MODERATE REGULAR ActionableScore 5 or more -> MODERATE 7.0 The distinction between MODERATE REGULAR and MODERATE 7.0 makes it possible to identify Moderate issues that should receive manual analysis and fixes before lower-priority MODERATE REGULAR issues. In many cases, MODERATE REGULAR fixes may wait for a later rebase or routine update. There is one override in which MODERATE REGULAR becomes MODERATE 7.0 even when the ActionableScore is below 5. When the AL-KERNEL result contains the KPANIC flag, a MODERATE result is always presented as MODERATE 7.0. The KPANIC flag selected with few regexps without usage of AI at all, so it helps to detect cases when Kernel Crash happens and similar (to filter False-Negative results from the LLM usage). KPANIC indicates that a reliable kernel crash, kernel panic, or similarly serious kernel availability impact was identified by the classification workflow. AL-KERNEL base severity for this report: MODERATE KPANIC detected for this report: YES Published priority for this report (same as in Subject): MODERATE 7.0 These results are intended to support engineering triage. They are machine-generated estimates, and cases marked for manual review should be validated by a human security engineer before final disposition. For more info read docs linked from here: https://kernelcve.org/ (and you can submit you own patch there to generate such a report for non-existant CVE-id yet). Note that in many cases this AI tool selects higher severity, than real is (means you can expect Importants instead of Moderate 7.0 or Moderates 7.0 instead of regular Moderates). If you see such cases, please use reply email interface to add additional manual analyses info to this particular CVE. And please, please, let me know when you see Lows instead of Importants or Important instead of Low (because particular for such cases I need to tune this AI tool to make it better for this one and next similar). My contact email for such notifications is alexanjelausa@gmail.com (and both send reply to CVE record itself too and see "reply" button below for howto reply).