Linux Kernel qla2xxx qla28xx_validate_flash_image memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel. It has been rated as critical. This affects the function qla28xx_validate_flash_image of the component qla2xxx. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-89862. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel (version unknown) and classified as critical. This issue affects the function qla28xx_validate_flash_image of the component qla2xxx. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: qla2xxx: Fix BSG job leak on validate flash image error path qla28xx_validate_flash_image() returns QLA_SUCCESS (0) unconditionally, telling the FC BSG transport (fc_bsg_host_dispatch()) that the driver owns and will complete the request. But bsg_job_done() is guarded by "if (!rval)", so on the error path (rval == -EINVAL) neither the driver nor the transport completes the job. The request dangles until it times out, leaking block layer resources. Commit c2c68225b145 ("scsi: qla2xxx: Fix bsg_done() causing double free") added the "if (!rval)" guard to a batch of BSG handlers. That is correct for handlers that also return the error code (the transport then completes the job once via fail_host_msg), but this function returns QLA_SUCCESS unconditionally, so the guard turned a correct single completion into a leak. Always call bsg_job_done(): bsg_reply->result is DID_OK and the error is reported in vendor_rsp[0], and since the function returns 0 the transport will not complete the job a second time.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-89862 since 09/11/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/16/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1499 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Applying the patch e25241f9fa01fb0c088381a156d84a725b71c1ef is able to eliminate this problem.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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