Linux Kernel up to 6.12.69/6.18.9 FS File Parser ceph_mds_auth_match null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.69/6.18.9. Affected by this vulnerability is the function ceph_mds_auth_match of the component FS File Parser. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-23189. No exploit exists. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.69/6.18.9 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function ceph_mds_auth_match of the component FS File Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix NULL pointer dereference in ceph_mds_auth_match() The CephFS kernel client has regression starting from 6.18-rc1. We have issue in ceph_mds_auth_match() if fs_name == NULL: const char fs_name = mdsc->fsc->mount_options->mds_namespace; ... if (auth->match.fs_name && strcmp(auth->match.fs_name, fs_name)) { / fsname mismatch, try next one */ return 0; } Patrick Donnelly suggested that: In summary, we should definitely start decoding `fs_name` from the MDSMap and do strict authorizations checks against it. Note that the `-o mds_namespace=foo` should only be used for selecting the file system to mount and nothing else. It's possible no mds_namespace is specified but the kernel will mount the only file system that exists which may have name "foo". This patch reworks ceph_mdsmap_decode() and namespace_equals() with the goal of supporting the suggested concept. Now struct ceph_mdsmap contains m_fs_name field that receives copy of extracted FS name by ceph_extract_encoded_string(). For the case of "old" CephFS file systems, it is used "cephfs" name. [ idryomov: replace redundant %*pE with %s in ceph_mdsmap_decode(), get rid of a series of strlen() calls in ceph_namespace_match(), drop changes to namespace_equals() body to avoid treating empty mds_namespace as equal, drop changes to ceph_mdsc_handle_fsmap() as namespace_equals() isn't an equivalent substitution there ]

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-23189 since 01/13/2026. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 299111 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-23189), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.70 or 6.18.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c6f8326f26bd20d648d9a55afd68148d1b6afe28/57b36ffc8881dd455d875f85c105901974af2130/7987cce375ac8ce98e170a77aa2399f2cf6eb99f is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (299111) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0421). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Discussion