CVE-2026-72170CVE-2026-72170

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: 9p: skip nlink update in cacheless mode to fix WARN_ON v9fs_dec_count() unconditionally calls drop_nlink() on regular files, even when the inode's nlink is already zero. In cacheless mode the client refetches inode metadata from the server (the source of truth) on every operation, so by the time v9fs_remove() returns, the locally cached nlink may already reflect the post-unlink value: 1. Client initiates unlink, server processes it and sets nlink to 0 2. Client refetches inode metadata (nlink=0) before unlink returns 3. Client's v9fs_remove() completes successfully 4. Client calls v9fs_dec_count() which calls drop_nlink() on nlink=0 This race is easily triggered under heavy unlink workloads, such as stress-ng's unlink stressor, producing the following warning: WARNING: fs/inode.c:417 at drop_nlink+0x4c/0xc8 Call trace: drop_nlink+0x4c/0xc8 v9fs_remove+0x1e0/0x250 [9p] v9fs_vfs_unlink+0x20/0x38