High severity · published Sep 11, 2026
CVE-2026-89695
nfsd: cap decoded POSIX ACL count to bound sort cost
7.5
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
nfsd: cap decoded POSIX ACL count to bound sort cost
nfsd4_decode_posixacl() reads a u32 entry count off the wire and passes
it straight to posix_acl_alloc() and sort_pacl_range(). The latter is
an O(n^2) bubble sort, so a client-chosen count drives unbounded CPU in
the server's compound processing path.
nfsd4_decode_posixacl()
xdr_stream_decode_u32(&count) /* uncapped u32 */
posix_acl_alloc(count, GFP_KERNEL)
sort_pacl_range(*acl, 0, count - 1) /* O(n^2) bubble sort */
The encoder side in the same file already rejects ACLs whose a_count
exceeds NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES, but the decoder introduced in commit
5fc51dfc2eb1 ("NFSD: Add support for XDR decoding POSIX draft ACLs")
omitted the symmetric check.
Fix by rejecting a wire count greater than NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES with
nfserr_inval, before any allocation, so the sort is bounded by
NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES^2 comparisons.
While we're in here, also fix the nfserr_resource return if
posix_acl_alloc() fails. That's not a legal error code for v4.1+. Change
it to return nfserr_jukebox as that's more appropriate for memory
allocation failures.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.5% · higher than 42% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
LI
Linux · Linux
5fc51dfc2eb160bd7ab3251ab1767cacf9c8bf05 before ea14d71d6ecb925673761bcf79f781f7dc9042cc; 5fc51dfc2eb160bd7ab3251ab1767cacf9c8bf05 before 4bc1108e876153a2dd6d874052b99182c3603135; 7.0 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-89695
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-89695
git.kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4bc1108e876153a2dd6d874052b99182c3603135
git.kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ea14d71d6ecb925673761bcf79f781f7dc9042cc
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