CVE-2026-90414: IB/isert: reject PDUs declaring more data than was received
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
IB/isert: reject PDUs declaring more data than was received
isertrecvdone() hands each received PDU to the opcode handlers without ever looking at wc->bytelen, the number of bytes the HCA actually placed in the receive descriptor. The handlers then copy that many bytes - the data-segment length the initiator declared in the BHS (ntoh24(hdr->dlength), via the derived unsoldatalen / immdatalen) - out of the fixed-size descriptor:
iserthandleiscsidataout(): sgcopyfrombuffer(sgstart, sgnents, isertgetdata(rxdesc), unsoldatalen); iserthandlescsicmd(): sgcopyfrombuffer(cmd->secmd.tdatasg, sgnents, isertgetdata(rxdesc), immdatalen);
Because the declared length is never checked against wc->bytelen, an initiator can declare a data segment larger than the bytes it actually sent (and larger than the descriptor) and cause an out-of-bounds read of the receive buffer.
Nothing upstream of isert closes this door:
- iscsitcheckdataouthdr() bounds the inbound payload against connops->MaxXmitDataSegmentLength (MXDSL) - a transmit parameter, used here for the inbound check. - iscsisetconnectionparameters() sets ops->MaxXmitDataSegmentLength = ops->TargetRecvDataSegmentLength; and TARGETRECVDATASEGMENTLENGTH is absent from the min()-clamp list in iscsicheckacceptorstate(), so the value the initiator declares is adopted verbatim (type range 512..16777215). The initiator effectively raises its own ceiling. - isert never clamps the negotiated value to its own fixed receive descriptor (ISERRXSIZE, 9216 bytes), so the target core's bound and the descriptor size are unrelated.
The immdatalen == datalen path is more than an over-read: it aliases the receive descriptor via sgsetbuf() and passes it to the backend as the data source for the SCSI WRITE, so an over-declared length causes heap contents past the descriptor to be written through the backend to the backing store. The backend is the victim of the oversized scatterlist isert hands it, not the cause; no read-back of the written bytes was demonstrated.
Trigger: after login completes (full feature phase), an initiator that has declared a large TargetRecvDataSegmentLength and a FirstBurstLength that permits unsolicited/immediate data sends a PDU whose declared data-segment length exceeds what was received. With KASAN:
BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in sgcopybuffer+0x150/0x1c0 Read of size 4096 at addr ffff888109720800 by task kworker/1:0H/25 Workqueue: ib-comp-wq ibcqpollwork Call Trace: sgcopybuffer+0x150/0x1c0 isertrecvdone+0xba6/0x2390 ibprocesscq+0xe1/0x390 ibcqpollwork+0x46/0x150
isertrecvdone+0xba6 resolves to iserthandleiscsidataout() (ibisert.c:1160), inlined through isertrxopcode().
Validate wc->bytelen against the framing in isertrecvdone() before the PDU reaches any handler, and reinstate the connection if it is short. Because the test compares without subtracting the header length, it also rejects PDUs shorter than the iSER and iSCSI headers, which would otherwise be parsed out of stale descriptor contents. The login handler rejects PDUs shorter than ISERHEADERSLEN (commit 29e7b925ae6d ("IB/isert: Reject login PDUs shorter than ISERHEADERSLEN")) but does not bound the declared length either; that is fixed in the next patch. The data handlers had no length check at all.
isert reads the data segment from a fixed offset: isertgetdata() returns the iSER header plus ISERHEADERSLEN and makes no adjustment for an AHS. The bytes the handlers touch are therefore exactly [ISERHEADERSLEN, ISERHEADERSLEN + dlength), and comparing that sum against wc->bytelen bounds precisely the region that is read. An AHS term would only make the test stricter without bounding anything furth ---truncated---
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade to a fixed release to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Patch 29e7b925ae6d - Configuration
In isert_recv_done(), validate wc->byte_len against the received framing (i.e., bound the declared dlength/imm_data_len region by checking against wc->byte_len before dispatching PDUs to isert_handle_iscsi_dataout()/other opcode handlers) to prevent the sg_copy_buffer out-of-bounds read described (KASAN slab-out-of-bounds in sg_copy_buffer+0x150/0x1c0).
Linux kernel (IB/isert) Validate wc->byte_len against framing in isert_recv_done() before opcode handlers access payload = enabled/added
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which systems are exposed?
Systems using the Linux kernel IB/isert target path are exposed when they receive iSCSI PDUs from an initiator. The vulnerable processing occurs in receive handling before opcode handlers copy the declared payload from the receive descriptor.
What does an attacker need to do?
An attacker needs to act as, or control, an iSCSI initiator that can send a malformed PDU to the IB/isert target. The PDU declares a data-segment length larger than the number of bytes actually received, causing the target to read beyond its fixed-size receive buffer.
Do existing iSCSI data-segment length checks prevent this?
No. The described inbound check uses MaxXmitDataSegmentLength, a transmit parameter, and does not verify the declared length against the receive completion byte count (wc->byte_len).