CVE-2026-89720: ubifs: fix out-of-bounds read in signature length check

Severity: high (CVSS 7.7 v3.1)
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 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ubifs: fix out-of-bounds read in signature length check ubifs_sb_verify_signature() bounds the on-disk ubifs_sig_node->len field before handing the signature payload to verify_pkcs7_signature(), but the check has the wrong sign: if (le32_to_cpu(signode->len) > snod->len + sizeof(struct ubifs_sig_node)) The signature bytes start sizeof(struct ubifs_sig_node) (UBIFS_SIG_NODE_SZ, 64 bytes) into the node, so the payload is at most snod->len - sizeof(struct ubifs_sig_node) bytes long. Adding the header size instead of subtracting it accepts a declared length up to 2 * UBIFS_SIG_NODE_SZ larger than the node actually holds -- past the end of c->sbuf, which is vmalloc(c->leb_size). verify_pkcs7_signature() -> pkcs7_parse_message() -> asn1_ber_decoder() is then handed that inflated length and reads beyond the allocation while walking the DER headers. The node length comes straight from the mounted image, so a crafted signed UBIFS image reaches this via ubifs_read_superblock() before the signature is cryptographically checked. snod->len is guaranteed to be >= UBIFS_SIG_NODE_SZ by the node scanner (c->ranges[UBIFS_SIG_NODE].min_len == UBIFS_SIG_NODE_SZ), so the corrected subtraction cannot underflow. Legitimately signed images are unaffected: a correct superblock never declares a signature longer than the node it is embedded in.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 5.3 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

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

References

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