---
id: CVE-2026-98815
title: 'nvme: fix cdev lifetime'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  nvme: fix cdev lifetime

  Sashiko bot reported a potential problem for the cdev lifetime in [0]
  - the code there is heavily based on the NVMe code.

  Currently the NS hea…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <
    98b09ad7934482e64db4b4477d91e3bbf43adf4c
  - >-
    Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <
    9952f3882ecba709092379b71e02b09762b26f96
  - Linux < 7.2.10
  - Linux (all versions)
published: '2026-10-18'
updated: '2026-10-18'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-18T15:49:03.248Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-98815'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/98b09ad7934482e64db4b4477d91e3bbf43adf4c'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9952f3882ecba709092379b71e02b09762b26f96'
tags:
  - cve.org
ingestedAt: '2026-10-18T16:47:32.476Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

nvme: fix cdev lifetime

Sashiko bot reported a potential problem for the cdev lifetime in [0]
- the code there is heavily based on the NVMe code.

Currently the NS head .open and .release file_operations methods take and
put a reference to the nvme_ns_head to ensure that this structure does not
disappear while we open fds for that cdev.

In multipath mode, when we teardown the NS head, we call nvme_cdev_del() ->
cdev_device_del() -> cdev_del(). However after cdev_del() returns, cdevs
already open will remain and their fops will still be callable. As such,
we can still reference the cdev after the nvme_ns_head reference count
drops to 0 (and is freed).

This can be shown with an application which delays between opening the cdev
and issuing the ioctl while the NS head is being torn down:

# ./ioctl_file /dev/ng1n1 &
# waiting 10 seconds ....

# ./ini_nvme_teardown.sh
[   21.221718] nvme nvme1: Removing ctrl: NQN "nvme-test-target"
[   21.274609] nvme nvme2: Removing ctrl: NQN "nvme-test-target"
# now going to issue ioctl ....
[   26.549285] ==================================================================
[   26.550841] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in cdev_put.part.0+0x3d/0x40
[   26.552352] Read of size 8 at addr ffff88811e7fa170 by task ioctl_file/237
[   26.553805]
[   26.554227] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 237 Comm: ioctl_file Not tainted 7.2.0-rc1-00004-g6852a10e32d4 #921 PREEMPT(lazy)
[   26.554236] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
[   26.554241] Call Trace:
[   26.554245]  <TASK>
[   26.554248]  dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0xa0
[   26.554266]  print_report+0x10d/0x5d0
[   26.554276]  ? __virt_addr_valid+0x21d/0x3f0
[   26.554287]  ? cdev_put.part.0+0x3d/0x40
[   26.554292]  kasan_report+0x96/0xd0
[   26.554300]  ? cdev_put.part.0+0x3d/0x40
[   26.554307]  cdev_put.part.0+0x3d/0x40
[   26.554313]  __fput+0x7bc/0xa70
[   26.554322]  fput_close_sync+0xd8/0x190
[   26.554328]  ? __pfx_fput_close_sync+0x10/0x10
[   26.554337]  __x64_sys_close+0x79/0xd0
[   26.554344]  do_syscall_64+0x117/0x6b0
[   26.554351]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
[   26.554358] RIP: 0033:0x7f938c067727
[   26.554364] Code: 48 89 fa 4c 89 df e8 28 ad 00 00 8b 93 08 03 00 00 59 5e 48 83 f8 fc 74 1a 5b c3 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 44 24 10 0f 05 <5bf
[   26.554369] RSP: 002b:00007fff49f05980 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000003
[   26.554376] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f938bfd7780 RCX: 00007f938c067727
[   26.554380] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003
[   26.554383] RBP: 00007fff49f05a10 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
[   26.554386] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000000
[   26.554389] R13: 00007fff49f05b40 R14: 00007f938c207000 R15: 000055c148471d78
[   26.554397]  </TASK>
[   26.554399]
[   26.575612] Allocated by task 100:
[   26.575871]  kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50
[   26.576157]  kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
[   26.576418]  __kasan_kmalloc+0x7f/0x90
[   26.576668]  __kmalloc_noprof+0x281/0x6c0
[   26.576938]  nvme_alloc_ns+0x7f7/0x3170
[   26.577206]  nvme_scan_ns+0x508/0x880
[   26.577449]  async_run_entry_fn+0x8c/0x350
[   26.577723]  process_scheduled_works+0xb6f/0x1a00
[   26.578034]  worker_thread+0x4ad/0xb40
[   26.578283]  kthread+0x34f/0x450
[   26.578501]  ret_from_fork+0x563/0x800
[   26.578752]  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
[   26.579012]
[   26.579124] Freed by task 237:
[   26.579335]  kasan_save_stack+0x24/0x50
[   26.579596]  kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
[   26.579855]  kasan_save_free_info+0x3a/0x60
[   26.580131]  __kasan_slab_free+0x43/0x70
[   26.580388]  kfree+0x321/0x500
[   26.580591]  nvme_ns_head_chr_release+0x39/0x50
[   26.580883]  __fput+0x352/0xa70
[   26.581095]  fput_close_sync+0xd8/0x190
[   26.581350]  __x64_sys_close+0x79/0xd0
[   26.581595]  do_syscall_64+0x117/0x6b0
[   26.581842]  entry_SYSCAL
---truncated---

## Affected

- `Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 < 98b09ad7934482e64db4b4477d91e3bbf43adf4c`
- `Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 < 9952f3882ecba709092379b71e02b09762b26f96`
- `Linux < 7.2.10`
- `Linux (all versions)`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.