Bug 2516422 (CVE-2026-72379)

Summary: CVE-2026-72379 kernel: fs: refuse O_TMPFILE creation with an unmapped fsuid or fsgid
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's filesystem (fs) component. The vfs_tmpfile() function, used for creating temporary files with O_TMPFILE, did not properly verify if a caller's user and group IDs (fsuid and fsgid) were mapped within an idmapped mount. This oversight could allow a local user to create a temporary file with an invalid owner, specifically (uid_t)-1, bypassing intended security checks and potentially leading to unexpected file ownership and permissions.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:11:43 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

fs: refuse O_TMPFILE creation with an unmapped fsuid or fsgid

vfs_tmpfile() never checked that the caller's fsuid and fsgid map into
the filesystem.  On an idmapped mount whose idmapping does not cover the
caller's fs{u,g}id, the ->tmpfile() instance initializes the new inode
through inode_init_owner(), where mapped_fsuid()/mapped_fsgid() return
INVALID_UID/INVALID_GID, and the tmpfile ends up owned by (uid_t)-1.

Every other creation path already refuses this: may_o_create() (O_CREAT)
and may_create_dentry() (mkdir, mknod, symlink, link) bail out with
-EOVERFLOW via fsuidgid_has_mapping() precisely so that an object cannot
be created with an owner the filesystem cannot represent.  An O_TMPFILE
is no exception: it is created I_LINKABLE and linkat(2) can splice it
into the namespace afterwards, so the same guarantee must hold.

Add the missing fsuidgid_has_mapping() check to vfs_tmpfile().  On a
non-idmapped mount the caller's fs{u,g}id always map in the superblock's
user namespace, so this is a no-op there and only takes effect on an
idmapped mount that does not map the caller.  It applies to every
filesystem that sets FS_ALLOW_IDMAP and implements ->tmpfile() (tmpfs,
ext4, btrfs, xfs, f2fs, ...), and to overlayfs, whose upper-layer
tmpfile creation funnels through vfs_tmpfile() via backing_tmpfile_open().