Bug 2516980 (CVE-2026-74487)

Summary: CVE-2026-74487 kernel: binfmt_misc: restore write access when removing an entry
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the `binfmt_misc` component of the Linux kernel. When a `binfmt_misc` entry is registered with the `MISC_FMT_OPEN_FILE` flag, it opens an interpreter file and denies write access. Upon removal of this entry, the write access is not properly restored. This oversight can lead to a persistent denial of write access to the interpreter file, causing subsequent attempts to open the file for writing to fail with an 'ETXTBSY' error until the affected inode is eventually evicted from the cache.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 12:42:24 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

binfmt_misc: restore write access when removing an entry

Registering an entry with the MISC_FMT_OPEN_FILE flag opens the
interpreter via open_exec() which denies write access to it for as
long as the entry exists. Removing the entry closes the interpreter
file via filp_close() but never restores write access, leaving the
inode's i_writecount permanently negative. Opening the interpreter
for writing keeps failing with ETXTBSY long after the entry is gone
until the inode is evicted from the inode cache.

Commit 90f601b497d7 ("binfmt_misc: restore write access before
closing files opened by open_exec()") fixed the same imbalance in the
error path of bm_register_write() but the actual removal path has
been leaking the write denial since the introduction of the flag.

Restore write access in put_binfmt_handler() before closing the
interpreter file.