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Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-90586

🗓️ 11 Nov 2026 00:00:00Reported by TenableType 
nessus
 nessus
🔗 www.tenable.com👁 4 Views

Unprivileged user-mode thread can cause out-of-bounds reads and writes in Xtensa MMU.

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Code
#%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80900
##
# (C) Tenable, Inc.
##

include('compat.inc');

if (description)
{
  script_id(379176);
  script_version("1.2");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_modification_date", value:"2026/11/13");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2026-90586");

  script_name(english:"Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-90586");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be
patched.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value:
"The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied
patch available.

  - The Xtensa MMU userspace port never initialized the per-thread page-table pointer thread->arch.ptables
    during thread setup, while arch_mem_domain_thread_add() in arch/xtensa/core/ptables.c uses a non-NULL
    value of that field as its this thread is migrating from another memory domain predicate. For a thread
    whose struct k_thread backing memory is not zeroed, the field holds stale data and the kernel takes the
    migration branch, passing that stale value to reset_region() as the base of a level-1 page table. The
    equivalent field on x86 is explicitly cleared in z_x86_userspace_prepare_thread() for exactly this reason;
    the Xtensa port adopted the predicate without the initialization. The condition is reachable from an
    unprivileged user-mode thread on a build with CONFIG_XTENSA_MMU, CONFIG_USERSPACE and dynamically
    allocated kernel objects. k_object_alloc(K_OBJ_THREAD) is a system call and allocates the thread object
    from the caller's resource pool without zeroing it, and the k_thread_create() verifier accepts such an
    object while forcing the K_USER option, so the migration branch is taken whenever the recycled heap bytes
    at that offset are non-zero. Because a user thread can also allocate, fill and free other kernel objects
    from the same heap, the stale bytes are groomable rather than merely random. Walking the bogus table in
    region_map_update() performs an unguarded index into l2_page_tables_counter[], may copy from and write
    through the attacker-influenceable level-1 base in dup_l2_table_if_needed(), and finally writes a page-
    table entry through a second pointer read out of that memory  once per page of the new thread's stack.
    The result is out-of-bounds reads and writes executed in supervisor mode, ranging from an immediate kernel
    panic (observed as Xtensa EXCAUSE 13 on Intel ADSP DSP firmware with user threads) to corruption of kernel
    memory and escape from the user-mode sandbox. (CVE-2026-90586)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-90586");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:
"There is no known solution at this time.");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"agent", value:"unix");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:U/RC:C");
  script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H");
  script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2026-90586");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"false");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vendor_unpatched", value:"true");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2026/11/09");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2026/11/11");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.10");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:zephyr");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"generated_plugin", value:"current");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_family(english:"Misc.");

  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2026 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof.");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info2.nasl", "set_linux_os_id.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/cpu", "Host/local_checks_enabled", "global_settings/vendor_unpatched", "Host/OS/identifier");
  script_require_ports("Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-16.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-18.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-20.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-22.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-24.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-26.04", "Host/OS/Ubuntu Linux-26.10");

  exit(0);
}

if (!get_kb_item("global_settings/vendor_unpatched")) exit(0, "Unpatched Vulnerabilities Detection not active.");
if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (empty_or_null(get_one_kb_item("Host/Debian/dpkg-l"))) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

include('linux_unpatched.inc');

var distro_constraints_array = {
  "Ubuntu Linux-16.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "16.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-18.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "18.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-20.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "20.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-22.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "22.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-24.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "24.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-26.04": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "26.04",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "Ubuntu Linux-26.10": {
    "package_manager": "dpkg-l",
    "constraints": [
      {
        "release": "26.10",
        "pkgs": [
          {"reference": "zephyr"}
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
};

var distro_constraints_values = linux_unpatched::get_distro_constraints(distro_constraints_arr:distro_constraints_array);
if (empty_or_null(distro_constraints_values)) audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');

var third_party_support = get_kb_item('Host/OS/extended-third-party');
if (!empty_or_null(third_party_support)) {
    var third_party_vendors = distro_constraints_values['third_party'];
    if (!empty_or_null(third_party_vendors)) {
        var vendor;
        foreach vendor (third_party_vendors) {
            if (vendor == third_party_support) exit(0, 'A third party management patch is available for this vulnerability from ' + vendor + '.\n');
        }
    }
}

var report = linux_unpatched::check_unpatched_constraints(distro_constraints_values:distro_constraints_values);

if (!empty_or_null(report))
{
  security_report_v4(
      port       : 0,
      severity   : SECURITY_WARNING,
      extra      : report
  );
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, 'affected');
}

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13 Nov 2026 00:00Current
6.6Medium risk
Vulners AI Score6.6
CVSS 3.17.8
EPSS0.00112
4