Evidence-led vulnerability intelligence · 2026-10-23 18:47 IST

CVE-2026-98920

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix missing alloc tagging of direct mempool allocations Commit 1d78d56c43ef ("netfs: Fix folio_queue ENOMEM in writeback by adding a mempool") added a mempool for the folio_queues and made the request, subrequest and folio_queue allocations distinguish between writeback and everything else. Writeback is part of memory reclaim and must not fail due to ENOMEM, so it allocates under GFP_NOFS through mempool_alloc(), which may dip into the pool's reserve and, if that runs empty, wait for elements to be returned. The GFP_KERNEL paths, which can return -ENOMEM to their callers, invoke the pool's ->alloc() callback directly instead. The direct call, however, skips the alloc_hooks() wrapper that the mempool_alloc() macro provides. The pool callbacks, mempool_alloc_slab() and mempool_kmalloc(), call kmem_cache_alloc_noprof() and kmalloc_noprof() and rely on current->alloc_tag having been set by the caller. With CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG=y this leads to current->alloc_tag not set WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:161 at __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook alloc_tag was not set WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:166 at __alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook at allocation and free time respectively, as reported when reading files on a CIFS mount. The allocations are also missing from /proc/allocinfo. Wrap the direct ->alloc() invocations in alloc_hooks() with a new mempool_alloc_noreserve() helper in include/linux/mempool.h, next to the other alloc_hooks()-wrapped macros such as mempool_alloc(). The GFP_KERNEL paths keep their failable allocation semantics, they just get tagged now.

UNRATED · N/ALinux

Executive briefing

A structured intelligence assessment has not yet been generated. The source description is shown above. The background enrichment worker will retry this record.

Assessment: Potential exposure only — validate product, version, configuration and vendor applicability.

Evidence confidence: Not assessed Evidence-derived, not an exploitability verdict

Severity & attack characteristics

N/A / 10 · CVSS

CVSS vector:
Not supplied

No CVSS vector is currently available in the source record.

Technical explanation & impact

Technical root-cause details are not available in the current source record.

Assess the impact using the published CVSS metrics and the affected vendor component.

Affected products and versions

NVD has not supplied machine-readable vulnerable CPE product/version entries for this CVE. This is an information gap, not proof that no products are affected. Check the vendor advisory references below.

Remediation & validation

  1. Identify exposure by comparing the affected product and version ranges with your asset inventory, SBOM and externally exposed services.
  2. Review the linked vendor security advisory or patch notes. Upgrade to a vendor-confirmed fixed release; do not infer a fixed version from the CVE description.
  3. Until patched, consider restricting network access or disabling the affected feature where operationally safe. These are temporary controls, not a substitute for a vendor fix.
  4. Validate the remediation with a version check and vulnerability rescan, then retain change evidence.

No fixed version is displayed unless it is explicitly established by a vendor advisory. Follow the vendor's release notes for exact product and branch applicability.

Vendor advisories, patches & exploit references

No external references are currently supplied in the CVE record.

Open NVD record ← Back to CVE Watch