Bug 2516619 (CVE-2026-72368)

Summary: CVE-2026-72368 kernel: cachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path
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
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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Doc Text:
A flaw was found in the `cachefiles` component of the Linux kernel. When a directory creation operation fails due to memory exhaustion, a double unlock of the parent directory lock occurs. This issue corrupts the read-write semaphore (rwsem) state, which can lead to system instability or a kernel panic, resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:22:14 UTC
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).