CVE-2026-23296: scsi: core: Fix refcount leak for tagset_refcnt

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-03-25 · updated 2026-10-15

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: core: Fix refcount leak for tagset_refcnt This leak will cause a hang when tearing down the SCSI host. For example, iscsid hangs with the following call trace: [130120.652718] scsi_alloc_sdev: Allocation failure during SCSI scanning, some SCSI devices might not be configured PID: 2528 TASK: ffff9d0408974e00 CPU: 3 COMMAND: "iscsid" #0 [ffffb5b9c134b9e0] __schedule at ffffffff860657d4 #1 [ffffb5b9c134ba28] schedule at ffffffff86065c6f #2 [ffffb5b9c134ba40] schedule_timeout at ffffffff86069fb0 #3 [ffffb5b9c134bab0] __wait_for_common at ffffffff8606674f #4 [ffffb5b9c134bb10] scsi_remove_host at ffffffff85bfe84b #5 [ffffb5b9c134bb30] iscsi_sw_tcp_session_destroy at ffffffffc03031c4 [iscsi_tcp] #6 [ffffb5b9c134bb48] iscsi_if_recv_msg at ffffffffc0292692 [scsi_transport_iscsi] #7 [ffffb5b9c134bb98] iscsi_if_rx at ffffffffc02929c2 [scsi_transport_iscsi] #8 [ffffb5b9c134bbf0] netlink_unicast at ffffffff85e551d6 #9 [ffffb5b9c134bc38] netlink_sendmsg at ffffffff85e554ef

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.10.223 before 5.11; from 5.15.164 before 5.15.203; from 5.19.12 before 6.0; from 6.0.1 before 6.1.167; from 6.2 before 6.6.130; from 6.7 before 6.12.77 — fixed in 5.11, 5.15.203, 6.0, 6.1.167, 6.12.77, 6.18.17

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.11, 5.15.203, 6.0, 6.1.167. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-23296 or the next vulnerability affects your stack