CVE-2026-89552: params: fix charp corruption on allocation failure

Severity: unknown
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-11 · updated 2026-10-30

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: params: fix charp corruption on allocation failure param_set_charp() stores charp parameters in allocated memory after slab is available, and releases the previous value when the parameter is updated. The previous value is released before the replacement allocation succeeds. If kmalloc_parameter() fails, the setter returns -ENOMEM with the parameter left as NULL. Failing zswap's compressor update before zswap is initialized can later trigger: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 RIP: 0010:strcmp+0x10/0x30 Call Trace: zswap_setup+0x3b1/0x490 zswap_enabled_param_set+0x5b/0xa0 param_attr_store+0x93/0xe0 module_attr_store+0x1c/0x30 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x116/0x1f0 Allocate and copy the replacement first, then replace the parameter value only after allocation succeeds.

Affected products

Linux: 2.6.30 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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