Medium [CVE-2026-53371] bound node_desc sysfs read with %.64s
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53371.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RDMA/ionic: bound node_desc sysfs read with %.64s node_desc[64] in struct ib_device is not guaranteed to be NUL- terminated.
The core IB sysfs handler uses "%.64s" for exactly this reason (drivers/infiniband/core/sysfs.c:1307), since node_desc_store() performs a raw memcpy of up to IB_DEVICE_NODE_DESC_MAX bytes with no NUL termination: memcpy(desc.node_desc, buf, min_t(int, count, IB_DEVICE_NODE_DESC_MAX)); If exactly 64 bytes are written via the node_desc sysfs file, the array contains no NUL byte.
The ionic hca_type_show() handler uses unbounded "%s" and will read past the end of node_desc into adjacent fields of struct ib_device until it encounters a NUL. ionic supports IB_DEVICE_MODIFY_NODE_DESC, so this is triggerable by userspace. Match the core handler and bound the format specifier.
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's ionic Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) driver. A local user can exploit this vulnerability due to an unbounded read operation when displaying the `node_desc` sysfs file.
If the `node_desc` field is not null-terminated, the system will read beyond its allocated buffer, potentially exposing sensitive information from adjacent memory regions within the `ib_device` structure. Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-125.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source
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