CVE-2026-72368
cachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 7.8 High
- Published
- Aug 15, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 17, 2026
- Reserved
- Aug 9, 2026
Description
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).
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 7.8 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H | Linux |
Weaknesses
The record names no weakness.
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
LinuxLinux |
|
LinuxLinux |
|
References
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