CVE-2026-43271

md-cluster: fix NULL pointer dereference in process_metadata_update

published May 6, 2026

CVSS
—
EPSS
0%
Percentile
1.5
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

md-cluster: fix NULL pointer dereference in process_metadata_update

The function process_metadata_update() blindly dereferences the 'thread'

pointer (acquired via rcu_dereference_protected) within the wait_event()

macro.

While the code comment states "daemon thread must exist", there is a valid

race condition window during the MD array startup sequence (md_run):

1. bitmap_load() is called, which invokes md_cluster_ops->join().

2. join() starts the "cluster_recv" thread (recv_daemon).

3. At this point, recv_daemon is active and processing messages.

4. However, mddev->thread (the main MD thread) is not initialized until

later in md_run().

If a METADATA_UPDATED message is received from a remote node during this

specific window, process_metadata_update() will be called while

mddev->thread is still NULL, leading to a kernel panic.

To fix this, we must validate the 'thread' pointer. If it is NULL, we

release the held lock (no_new_dev_lockres) and return early, safely

ignoring the update request as the array is not yet fully ready to

process it.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS
Not scored
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00116 · 1.5th percentile
Published
2026-05-06T11:28Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 06 MAY 11:28Z
    md-cluster: fix NULL pointer dereference in process_metadata_update
    cvelistv5