Executive brief
A vulnerability was identified in the Linux kernel's cryptographic subsystem that could lead to data corruption or incorrect encryption. The issue occurs when multiple asynchronous encryption requests share the same memory space for initialization vectors (IVs), allowing one request to overwrite the settings of another before it finishes. This could potentially compromise the integrity of encrypted data handled by applications using the AF_ALG interface.
Technical details
A race condition exists in the AF_ALG AEAD implementation (crypto/algif_aead.c) within the Linux kernel. Asynchronous I/O (AIO) requests were found to use a socket-wide shared buffer for Initialization Vectors (IVs). Because these requests are processed asynchronously, subsequent socket activity could modify the IV buffer before an in-flight request completed, leading to the use of incorrect or corrupted IVs. The fix involves snapshotting the IV into per-request storage during the preparation phase of the AEAD request to ensure immutability during the operation's lifecycle. This vulnerability requires local access to the AF_ALG socket interface.
Affected products
- Linux Linux kernel All versions prior to the May 2026 patches
Timeline
- 2026-04-30: patched: Initial patch committed to stable tree
- 2026-05-27: disclosed: CVE published to NVD
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/08ea39a556ecd39b33c2b4888861001c6706a62e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3d72f8c6490dc79210b64270740cb2a8619361a4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46fdb39e83227b5d39f7c934a0947ea913f13c18
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5aa58c3a572b3e3b6c786953339f7978b845cc52
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a920cabdb0b7cf1f4e11a20524253ae5bd09092b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c2138c9bd02af19e0b407376140cd5435b0d81da
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ebc235675f24b0e3f8bc92b8419471d42f837d8f