---
id: "CVE-2026-98920"
kind: "vulnerability"
aliases: ["CVE-2026-98920"]
title: "Linux kernel: netfs direct mempool allocations missing memory allocation tagging"
severity: "unknown"
cvss: null
epss: 0.00206
exploited: false
status: "open"
category: "runtime"
products: []
ecosystems: []
tags: ["cifs", "linux-kernel", "netfs", "runtime"]
not_affected_if: ["default-config"]
published_at: "2026-10-23T13:17:12+00:00"
first_seen_at: "2026-10-23T21:57:33+00:00"
updated_at: "2026-10-25T12:38:50+00:00"
sources: [{"source": "nvd", "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98920", "first_seen_at": "2026-10-23T21:57:33+00:00"}, {"source": "epss", "url": "https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-98920", "first_seen_at": "2026-10-25T12:38:50+00:00"}]
---

# Linux kernel: netfs direct mempool allocations missing memory allocation tagging

In the Linux kernel's netfs networking filesystem layer, allocations made directly through a mempool skip the allocation-tagging hook, causing kernel warnings with CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG enabled when reading files on a CIFS mount. The sources describe a correctness and debugging defect and do not describe an attacker gaining access or code execution.

_Summary, check and fix written by a model from the sources; labelled as such._

## How to check

- unknown

## Fix

- unknown

## Timeline

- 2026-10-23T21:57:33+00:00 nvd https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-98920
- 2026-10-25T12:38:50+00:00 epss https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-98920

## From the sources

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

netfs: Fix missing alloc tagging of direct mempool allocations

Commit 1d78d56c43ef ("netfs: Fix folio_queue ENOMEM in writeback by
adding a mempool") added a mempool for the folio_queues and made the
request, subrequest and folio_queue allocations distinguish between
writeback and everything else.  Writeback is part of memory reclaim
and must not fail due to ENOMEM, so it allocates under GFP_NOFS
through mempool_alloc(), which may dip into the pool's reserve and,
if that runs empty, wait for elements to be returned.  The
GFP_KERNEL paths, which can return -ENOMEM to their callers, invoke
the pool's ->alloc() callback directly instead.

The direct call, however, skips the alloc_hooks() wrapper that the
mempool_alloc() macro provides.  The pool callbacks, mempool_alloc_slab()
and mempool_kmalloc(), call kmem_cache_alloc_noprof() and kmalloc_noprof()
and rely on current->alloc_tag having been set by the caller.  With
CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG=y this leads to

    current->alloc_tag not set
    WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:161 at __alloc_tagging_slab_alloc_hook
    alloc_tag was not set
    WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:166 at __alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook

at allocation and free time respectively, as reported when reading
files on a CIFS mount.  The allocations are also missing from
/proc/allocinfo.

Wrap the direct ->alloc() invocations in alloc_hooks() with a new
mempool_alloc_noreserve() helper in include/linux/mempool.h, next to
the other alloc_hooks()-wrapped macros such as mempool_alloc().  The
GFP_KERNEL paths keep their failable allocation semantics, they just
get tagged now.

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