CVE-2026-98981
CVE-2026-98981CVE-2026-98981
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
namespace: unhash a dentry before detaching the mounts on it
unlink(), rmdir() and rename() remove the entry from the filesystem,
call detach_mounts() on the entry with the inode locked and then call
d_delete() once the inode is unlocked.
The thing is that between detach_mounts() and d_delete() the dentry is
still hashed and positive. But after detach_mounts() nothing covers the
dentry anymore. A lookup that finds this dentry in the dcache can
uncover what the mounts hid.
That's a problem when unlinking files or directories that are
mountpoints in other mount namespaces. Everybody who had the underlying
entry covered can race the detach_mount() call until d_delete() has run.
The race window isn't all that small. It encompasses namespace_unlock()
with a full synchronize_rcu_expedited() grace period and the
inode_unlock() of the entry.
In my experiments three walkers that kept trying read an overmounted
file in 119
Scoring
| Last modified | 2026-10-23 |