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GHSA-H4X8-G6JQ-M2W5

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-08-15 06:32 – Updated: 2026-08-17 06:33
VLAI
Details

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

cachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path

When start_creating() fails and returns -ENOMEM, it has already released the parent directory lock in __start_dirop():

static struct dentry *__start_dirop(...)
{
    ...
    inode_lock_nested(dir, I_MUTEX_PARENT);
    dentry = lookup_one_qstr_excl(name, parent, lookup_flags);
    if (IS_ERR(dentry))
        inode_unlock(dir);  <-- Lock released on error
    return dentry;
}

However, the nomem_d_alloc error path in cachefiles_get_directory() unconditionally calls inode_unlock(d_inode(dir)) again, causing a double unlock that corrupts the rwsem state.

This is a leftover from commit 7ab96df840e60 which replaced manual locking with start_creating() but failed to update the nomem_d_alloc path (while correctly updating mkdir_error and lookup_error paths).

Severity
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Show details on source website
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{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-72368"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-08-15T06:22:10Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\ncachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path\n\nWhen start_creating() fails and returns -ENOMEM, it has already\nreleased the parent directory lock in __start_dirop():\n\n    static struct dentry *__start_dirop(...)\n    {\n        ...\n        inode_lock_nested(dir, I_MUTEX_PARENT);\n        dentry = lookup_one_qstr_excl(name, parent, lookup_flags);\n        if (IS_ERR(dentry))\n            inode_unlock(dir);  \u003c-- Lock released on error\n        return dentry;\n    }\n\nHowever, the nomem_d_alloc error path in cachefiles_get_directory()\nunconditionally calls inode_unlock(d_inode(dir)) again, causing a\ndouble unlock that corrupts the rwsem state.\n\nThis is a leftover from commit 7ab96df840e60 which replaced manual\nlocking with start_creating() but failed to update the nomem_d_alloc\npath (while correctly updating mkdir_error and lookup_error paths).",
  "id": "GHSA-h4x8-g6jq-m2w5",
  "modified": "2026-08-17T06:33:25Z",
  "published": "2026-08-15T06:32:21Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72368"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/26757dac15175f2a42e3537f1ba86e62456d48f1"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8c256fba2b46020004201c500b2a1fbc707a33ef"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ]
}



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