CVE-2026-97554: smb: client: avoid using uninitialized SIDs in cifs_posix_to_fattr()

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: 2026-09-25 · updated 2026-10-30

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: avoid using uninitialized SIDs in cifs_posix_to_fattr() cifs_posix_to_fattr() ignores the return value of posix_info_parse(). When a malformed POSIX directory entry is encountered (e.g. invalid SID lengths from an untrusted server), posix_info_parse() returns -1 without populating the 'parsed' struct. The uninitialized stack memory in parsed.owner and parsed.group is then passed to sid_to_id(), which processes the garbage bytes and passes them to request_key() to construct a SID string, potentially leaking kernel stack contents to the userspace idmap daemon. Fix this by checking the return value and skipping the SID-to-id mapping when parsing fails. The remaining fattr fields (timestamps, mode, etc.) are populated directly from the 'info' pointer so they are unaffected.

Affected products

Linux: from 5.8.17 before 5.9; from 5.9.2 before 5.10 — fixed in 5.9, 5.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux 5.9, 5.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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