Bug 2516619 (CVE-2026-72368) - CVE-2026-72368 kernel: cachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path
Summary: CVE-2026-72368 kernel: cachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-72368
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-08-15 06:22 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-08-19 14:42 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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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).


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