CVE-2026-23327

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

cxl/mbox: validate payload size before accessing contents in cxl_payload_from_user_allowed()

cxl_payload_from_user_allowed() casts and dereferences the input payload without first verifying its size. When a raw mailbox command is sent with an undersized payload (ie: 1 byte for CXL_MBOX_OP_CLEAR_LOG, which expects a 16-byte UUID), uuid_equal() reads past the allocated buffer, triggering a KASAN splat:

BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in memcmp+0x176/0x1d0 lib/string.c:683 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88810130f5c0 by task syz.1.62/2258

CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 2258 Comm: syz.1.62 Not tainted 6.19.0-dirty #3 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0xab/0xe0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xce/0x650 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0xce/0x100 mm/kasan/report.c:595 memcmp+0x176/0x1d0 lib/string.c:683 uuid_equal include/linux/uuid.h:73 [inline] cxl_payload_from_user_allowed drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:345 [inline] cxl_mbox_cmd_ctor drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:368 [inline] cxl_validate_cmd_from_user drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:522 [inline] cxl_send_cmd+0x9c0/0xb50 drivers/cxl/core/mbox.c:643 __cxl_memdev_ioctl drivers/cxl/core/memdev.c:698 [inline] cxl_memdev_ioctl+0x14f/0x190 drivers/cxl/core/memdev.c:713 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:597 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:583 [inline] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210 fs/ioctl.c:583 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xa8/0x330 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fdaf331ba79 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fdaf1d77038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fdaf3585fa0 RCX: 00007fdaf331ba79 RDX: 00002000000001c0 RSI: 00000000c030ce02 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007fdaf33749df R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007fdaf3586038 R14: 00007fdaf3585fa0 R15: 00007ffced2af768

Add in_size parameter to cxl_payload_from_user_allowed() and validate the payload is large enough.

Weakness

The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Assume all input is malicious. Use an “accept known good” input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
• When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, “boat” may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as “red” or “blue.”
• Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code’s environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
• To reduce the likelihood of introducing an out-of-bounds read, ensure that you validate and ensure correct calculations for any length argument, buffer size calculation, or offset. Be especially careful of relying on a sentinel (i.e. special character such as NUL) in untrusted inputs.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/540.html

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/60b5d1f68338aff2c5af0113f04aefa7169c50c2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7c8a7b7f063b7e7ae9bba4cbaa14a5d2fe3a55e1
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dc184ac2f0ba77ae19725ee06ad3ab36bb9d1f61