{"cve":"CVE-2026-89956","nvd":{"published":"2026-09-16T11:17:05.920","modified":"2026-10-21T13:20:32.673","status":"Received","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ns390/vfio-ap: Fix missing lock required to access list of ap_matrix_mdev objects\n\nIn order to traverse or add/remove ap_matrix_mdev objects in the\nmatrix_dev->mdev_list, the matrix_dev->guests_lock mutex must be held.\nThere are two functions that access the list without holding the mutex:\n\nvfio_ap_mdev_probe function\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nThe vfio_ap_mdev_probe function uses the matrix_dev->mdevs_lock\nmutex to guard the add of a newly created ap_matrix_mdev object to the\nmatrix_dev->mdev_list. This mutex does not protect list access; its purpose\nis to guard against concurrent access to fields contained in an\nap_matrix_mdev object. This could lead to kernel memory corruption or\nuse-after-free if another mdev is created or removed concurrently.\n\nThe adding of an ap_matrix_mdev object to matrix_dev->mdev_list\nis now guarded by the matrix_dev->guests_lock which is the correct\nway to protect against concurrent mdev_list access.\n\nAlso removed the following two lines of code because the matrix_mdev is\nallocated via vfio_alloc_device macro which uses kzalloc, so req_trigger\nand cfg_chg_trigger are already zero-initialised when the struct is\nallocated before the call to vfio_register_emulated_iommu_dev. This\nprevents a window whereby these triggers are set to NULL after\nthe device is exposed to userspace.\n\nmatrix_mdev->req_trigger = NULL;\nmatrix_mdev->cfg_chg_trigger = NULL;\n\nvfio_ap_mdev_for_queue function\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nThe status_show function that supports display of the status attribute of\nthe devices in /sys/bus/ap/devices calls the vfio_ap_mdev_for_queue\nfunction which iterates the matrix_dev->mdev_list to find the object\nrepresenting the queue device whose status is to be displayed. In order to\ntraverse this list, the matrix_dev->guests_lock mutex must be held.\n\nTo fix this, the guests_lock mutex is taken prior to taking the\nmatrix_dev->mdevs_lock mutex in the status_show function. It is taken\nthere rather than the vfio_ap_mdev_for_queue function - where it is\nneeded - because it must be taken prior to the mdevs_lock mutex in order to\nadhere to the proper locking order and prevent a lockdep splat; also\nbecause the mdevs_lock is needed there to access fields within\nthe matrix_mdev object in that function.\n\nSee the vfio-ap-locking.rst in the linux kernel tree.","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":null,"cwes":[],"references":["https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0fd74477d05743d4cd9b25a3b667daa278d53b93","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22dc712c170efc1a549e3f872467c880be995ac7","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/530ee1cc71562b6799b9ece187b6c1b757a2c6fa","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/647916988272fe5ecb4bb30cd02b51af9960618a","https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7fa61c29850d05e40ca9ed41bfdf57673023f581"],"products":[],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-22T16:41:11.231219466+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2026-89956","score":0.00206,"percentile":0.1057,"date":"2026-10-25"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}