CVE-2026-53383: ksmbd: reject non-VALID session in compound request branch

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-07-19 · updated 2026-08-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: reject non-VALID session in compound request branch smb2_check_user_session() takes a shortcut for any operation that is not the first in a COMPOUND request: it reuses work->sess (the session bound by the first operation) and validates only the SessionId, then returns "valid". It never re-checks work->sess->state == SMB2_SESSION_VALID, and a SessionId of 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (ULLONG_MAX, the MS-SMB2 related-operation value) skips even the id comparison. The standalone path (ksmbd_session_lookup_all() plus the SESSION_SETUP state machine) does enforce the VALID state; the compound branch bypasses all of it. A SESSION_SETUP carrying only an NTLM Type-1 (NtLmNegotiate) blob publishes a fresh SMB2_SESSION_IN_PROGRESS session whose sess->user is still NULL (->user is assigned later, by ntlm_authenticate()). Used as operation 1 of a COMPOUND with operation 2 = TREE_CONNECT (related, SessionId=ULLONG_MAX, \\host\IPC$), the tree-connect then runs on that IN_PROGRESS session and reaches ksmbd_ipc_tree_connect_request(), which dereferences user_name(sess->user) with sess->user == NULL (transport_ipc.c:687/701/704) -> remote NULL-pointer dereference and a kernel Oops that wedges the ksmbd worker for all clients. Reject any non-first compound operation that lands on a session which is not SMB2_SESSION_VALID, mirroring the validity the standalone lookup path enforces. SESSION_SETUP itself legitimately runs on an IN_PROGRESS session, but it is never carried as a non-first compound operation, so multi-leg authentication is unaffected by this check.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.15.121 before 5.15.211; from 6.1.36 before 6.1.177; from 6.3.10 before 6.4; from 6.4.1 before 6.6.144; from 6.7 before 6.12.95; from 6.13 before 6.18.37 — fixed in 5.15.211, 6.1.177, 6.12.95, 6.18.37, 6.4, 6.6.144

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.211, 6.1.177, 6.12.95, 6.18.37. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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