ceph: fix NULL pointer dereference in ceph_mds_auth_match()
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix NULL pointer dereference in ceph_mds_auth_match() The CephFS kernel client has regression starting from 6.18-rc1. We have issue in ceph_mds_auth_match() if fs_name == NULL: const char fs_name = mdsc->fsc->mount_options->mds_namespace; ... if (auth->match.fs_name && strcmp(auth->match.fs_name, fs_name)) { / fsname mismatch, try next one */ return 0; } Patrick Donnelly suggested that: In summary, we should definitely start decoding `fs_name` from the MDSMap and do strict authorizations checks against it. Note that the `-o mds_namespace=foo` should only be used for selecting the file system to mount and nothing else. It's possible no mds_namespace is specified but the kernel will mount the only file system that exists which may have name "foo". This patch reworks ceph_mdsmap_decode() and namespace_equals() with the goal of supporting the suggested concept. Now struct ceph_mdsmap contains m_fs_name field that receives copy of extracted FS name by ceph_extract_encoded_string(). For the case of "old" CephFS file systems, it is used "cephfs" name. [ idryomov: replace redundant %*pE with %s in ceph_mdsmap_decode(), get rid of a series of strlen() calls in ceph_namespace_match(), drop changes to namespace_equals() body to avoid treating empty mds_namespace as equal, drop changes to ceph_mdsc_handle_fsmap() as namespace_equals() isn't an equivalent substitution there ]
02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE
Affected packages
902 explicit affected versions
03 / CONNECTIONS
Connected vulnerabilities
04 / EVIDENCE
Source records
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix NULL pointer dereference in ceph_mds_auth_match() The CephFS kernel client has regression starting from 6.18-rc1. We have issue in ceph_mds_auth_match() if fs_name == NULL: const char fs_name = mdsc->fsc->mount_options->mds_namespace; ... if (auth->match.fs_name && strcmp(auth->match.fs_name, fs_name)) { / fsname mismatch, try next one */ return 0; } Patrick Donnelly suggested that: In summary, we should definitely start decoding `fs_name` from the MDSMap and do strict authorizations checks against it. Note that the `-o mds_namespace=foo` should only be used for selecting the file system to mount and nothing else. It's possible no mds_namespace is specified but the kernel will mount the only file system that exists which may have name "foo". This patch reworks ceph_mdsmap_decode() and namespace_equals() with the goal of supporting the suggested concept. Now struct ceph_mdsmap contains m_fs_name field that receives copy of extracted FS name by ceph_extract_encoded_string(). For the case of "old" CephFS file systems, it is used "cephfs" name. [ idryomov: replace redundant %*pE with %s in ceph_mdsmap_decode(), get rid of a series of strlen() calls in ceph_namespace_match(), drop changes to namespace_equals() body to avoid treating empty mds_namespace as equal, drop changes to ceph_mdsc_handle_fsmap() as namespace_equals() isn't an equivalent substitution there ]
05 / REFERENCES
Further evidence
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/57b36ffc8881dd455d875f85c105901974af2130
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7987cce375ac8ce98e170a77aa2399f2cf6eb99f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c6f8326f26bd20d648d9a55afd68148d1b6afe28
- https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23189.json
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23189