---
id: CVE-2026-90079
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  octeontx2-af: fix cn20k mailbox lifetime on repeated rvu_mbox_init()

  rvu_mbox_init() is called separately for AF-PF mailboxes during probe
  and for AF-VF mailboxes when…
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  octeontx2-af: fix cn20k mailbox lifetime on repeated rvu_mbox_init()

  rvu_mbox_init() is called separately for AF-PF mailboxes during probe
  and for AF-VF mailboxes when…
severity: medium
cvss: 5.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-772
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= e53ee4acb220acab6832669334279367b0206af6 <
    a0fcbea79f034f49bdd44915f28938922023458d
  - >-
    Linux >= e53ee4acb220acab6832669334279367b0206af6 <
    3b11a77f69980932c3924054d66e565c9a135747
  - Linux 6.17
published: '2026-09-17'
updated: '2026-10-15'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T11:17:56.623'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-90079'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3b11a77f69980932c3924054d66e565c9a135747'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a0fcbea79f034f49bdd44915f28938922023458d'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c08314f91782983d67af0807ed1360e404ac4a8b'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: >-
      https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-90079.json
  - url: 'https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-90079'
  - url: 'https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2536319'
  - url: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-90079'
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-90079'
  - url: >-
      https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/security/vulns.git/plain/cve/published/2026/CVE-2026-90079.mbox
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - csaf
  - vex
  - red-hat
epss: 0.00206
epssPercentile: 0.10641
cvssSource: vendor
ingestedAt: '2026-09-17T16:21:47.896Z'
---

## Overview

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

octeontx2-af: fix cn20k mailbox lifetime on repeated rvu_mbox_init()

rvu_mbox_init() is called separately for AF-PF mailboxes during probe
and for AF-VF mailboxes when SR-IOV is enabled.  Each call used to
allocate a new ng_rvu object, leaking the first allocation when the
pointer was overwritten on the second call.

Sharing one ng_rvu across both paths exposed several teardown bugs:
the error path freed all cn20k mailbox DMA and kfree()d ng_rvu even
when only the failing init type should be unwound, leaving live AF-PF
mailbox memory in use after an AF-VF init failure.  mutex_init() was
also re-run on the AF-VF path while AF-PF mailbox handlers could still
hold rvu->mbox_lock.  Probe and SR-IOV failure paths did not release
cn20k mailbox DMA either, since cleanup only happened in rvu_remove().

Allocate ng_rvu once with devm_kzalloc(), initialize mbox_lock in the
same block, unwind only the mailbox memory for the failing init type,
and free cn20k mailbox DMA from the probe and pci_enable_sriov()
error paths.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.

## Vendor advisories

- **Red Hat VEX** · Moderate · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 · updated 2026-10-05 · [vex](https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-90079.json)