CVE-2026-74485: binfmt_misc: reject a flag character as the field delimiter

CVE-2026-74485: binfmt_misc: reject a flag character as the field delimiter

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@kernel.org>

Description
===========

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

binfmt_misc: reject a flag character as the field delimiter

The registration string starts with a user chosen delimiter that
separates the individual fields. So that the field parsers terminate
even on a truncated string create_entry() pads the buffer with that
same delimiter:

	memset(buf + count, del, 8);

Most fields are scanned for the delimiter with strchr()/scanarg() and
happily stop on the padding. The flags field is different: instead of
scanning for the delimiter check_special_flags() consumes the flag
characters 'P', 'O', 'C' and 'F' and stops at the first byte that is
none of them, relying on the trailing delimiter to end the scan.

If the delimiter is itself a flag character the padding no longer acts
as a terminator. The scan swallows all eight padding bytes and keeps
reading past the end of the allocation until it hits a byte that is
not a flag character. For example registering

	PaPEPPxPPiP

with 'P' as the delimiter (name "a", type extension, magic "x",
interpreter "i", empty flags) leaves the flag scan running off the end
of the buffer. The registration is rejected in the end because the
parser does not stop exactly at buf + count, but only after the out of
bounds read has already happened. With an unlucky allocation layout the
scan can walk into an unmapped page; under KASAN it is reported as a
slab out of bounds read. binfmt_misc mounts are available to
unprivileged users in a user namespace so the read is reachable without
privileges.

Reject a delimiter that is one of the flag characters up front. Such a
registration was always rejected anyway, only after the out of bounds
read, so no valid registration string changes meaning.

The Linux kernel CVE team has assigned CVE-2026-74485 to this issue.


Affected and fixed versions
===========================

	Issue introduced in 2.6.12 with commit 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and fixed in 6.6.151 with commit 1819f82dee766c58295ecaacdac02cdf6837d7a4
	Issue introduced in 2.6.12 with commit 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and fixed in 6.12.103 with commit 1853e95c9bfe69ef1dd862b3f551e68f4a1b76cc
	Issue introduced in 2.6.12 with commit 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and fixed in 6.18.44 with commit 840bb9c49c3e75fb32b593d67ab32f6b77122262
	Issue introduced in 2.6.12 with commit 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and fixed in 7.1.8 with commit 9a2d87db3898b5993b64fd258d0334e0eba9ee0d
	Issue introduced in 2.6.12 with commit 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 and fixed in 7.2-rc6 with commit 8e85d50ba1117fd446bf9a250bd8a97d48384bdc

Please see https://www.kernel.org for a full list of currently supported
kernel versions by the kernel community.

Unaffected versions might change over time as fixes are backported to
older supported kernel versions.  The official CVE entry at
	https://cve.org/CVERecord/?id=CVE-2026-74485
will be updated if fixes are backported, please check that for the most
up to date information about this issue.


Affected files
==============

The file(s) affected by this issue are:
	fs/binfmt_misc.c


Mitigation
==========

The Linux kernel CVE team recommends that you update to the latest
stable kernel version for this, and many other bugfixes.  Individual
changes are never tested alone, but rather are part of a larger kernel
release.  Cherry-picking individual commits is not recommended or
supported by the Linux kernel community at all.  If however, updating to
the latest release is impossible, the individual changes to resolve this
issue can be found at these commits:
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1819f82dee766c58295ecaacdac02cdf6837d7a4
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1853e95c9bfe69ef1dd862b3f551e68f4a1b76cc
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/840bb9c49c3e75fb32b593d67ab32f6b77122262
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9a2d87db3898b5993b64fd258d0334e0eba9ee0d
	https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8e85d50ba1117fd446bf9a250bd8a97d48384bdc