nfsd: cap decoded POSIX ACL count to bound sort cost

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfsd: cap decoded POSIX ACL count to bound sort cost nfsd4_decode_posixacl() reads a u32 entry count off the wire and passes it straight to posix_acl_alloc() and sort_pacl_range(). The latter is an O(n^2) bubble sort, so a client-chosen count drives unbounded CPU in the server's compound processing path. nfsd4_decode_posixacl() xdr_stream_decode_u32(&count) /* uncapped u32 */ posix_acl_alloc(count, GFP_KERNEL) sort_pacl_range(acl, 0, count - 1) / O(n^2) bubble sort */ The encoder side in the same file already rejects ACLs whose a_count exceeds NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES, but the decoder introduced in commit 5fc51dfc2eb1 ("NFSD: Add support for XDR decoding POSIX draft ACLs") omitted the symmetric check. Fix by rejecting a wire count greater than NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES with nfserr_inval, before any allocation, so the sort is bounded by NFS_ACL_MAX_ENTRIES^2 comparisons. While we're in here, also fix the nfserr_resource return if posix_acl_alloc() fails. That's not a legal error code for v4.1+. Change it to return nfserr_jukebox as that's more appropriate for memory allocation failures.

Timeline

1. Sep 11, 2026, 7:46 PM UTCCVE published
2. Oct 19, 2026, 8:51 AM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• Linux Linux

  From 5fc51dfc2eb160bd7ab3251ab1767cacf9c8bf05 · fixed in ea14d71d6ecb925673761bcf79f781f7dc9042cc; From 5fc51dfc2eb160bd7ab3251ab1767cacf9c8bf05 · fixed in 4bc1108e876153a2dd6d874052b99182c3603135

• Linux Linux

  7.0

• KernelLinux

  From 7.0.0 · fixed in 7.2.4

References 2