Bug 2482032 (CVE-2026-46040) - CVE-2026-46040 kernel: inotify: fix watch count leak when fsnotify_add_inode_mark_locked() fails
Summary: CVE-2026-46040 kernel: inotify: fix watch count leak when fsnotify_add_inode_...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-46040
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-05-27 15:07 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-05-27 19:43 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-27 15:07:59 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

inotify: fix watch count leak when fsnotify_add_inode_mark_locked() fails

When fsnotify_add_inode_mark_locked() fails in inotify_new_watch(),
the error path calls inotify_remove_from_idr() but does not call
dec_inotify_watches() to undo the preceding inc_inotify_watches().
This leaks a watch count, and repeated failures can exhaust the
max_user_watches limit with -ENOSPC even when no watches are active.

Prior to commit 1cce1eea0aff ("inotify: Convert to using per-namespace
limits"), the watch count was incremented after fsnotify_add_mark_locked()
succeeded, so this path was not affected. The conversion moved
inc_inotify_watches() before the mark insertion without adding the
corresponding rollback.

Add the missing dec_inotify_watches() call in the error path.


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