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CVE-2026-98981

namespace: unhash a dentry before detaching the mounts on it

Products / packages Linux

Published

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Severity and exploitation

Not in CISA KEV

KEV coverage does not rule out exploitation.

KEV checked 14/11/2026, 21:55:35 UTC
Linux · CVSS:3.1 · 8.8
Assessment vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity

high8.8

CVSS measures technical severity, not the likelihood of an attack.

Known exploitation

Not listed in the checked CISA KEV catalog

Absence from CISA KEV does not rule out attacks.

Public exploit

Not established by this record

Missing evidence does not mean no public exploit exists.

Remediation

Fix status not established

No structured fix or guidance is available here. Check the latest publisher advisory.

What this means

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Source excerpt · Linux

Attack conditions

No attack-condition excerpt has been identified here. Review the full source description and references for authentication, network access, and configuration requirements.

Review supporting sources →

Affected versions

Check the exact model, release, and any platform requirements against your installation.

Linux · Linux

Linux

8 ranges

Compare with this publisher’s ranges. This does not inspect your installation.

affected

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before b3fa3811ffffa130586c4ff8f7299b7fc69216d5

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before 97cc290c57ea04337fd33912d780367add41525c

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before bb917ec497f6099c6cb9375596e085a5f6b52ff2

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before db90eecbde319527aa9480c039d32a0f5fe80574

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before 8d71bfc9b3fc15d7103e82ea9dc5057541866e46

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before d29cd99db3db74cf3447be74d25740981789d461

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before 8300de4aa5d09061bfcf2af5b52c0cdba3873185

git versions

8ed936b5671bfb33d89bc60bdcc7cf0470ba52fe → before 528b383dc35d1e5caf64ddf5d35f983ae543b0d0

git versions

unaffected

unknown

Other versions: unaffected

Linux · Linux

Linux

10 ranges

Compare with this publisher’s ranges. This does not inspect your installation.

affected

3.18

unaffected

0 → before 3.18

semver versions

5.10.273 → through 5.10.*

semver versions

5.15.224 → through 5.15.*

semver versions

6.1.191 → through 6.1.*

semver versions

6.6.160 → through 6.6.*

semver versions

6.12.114 → through 6.12.*

semver versions

6.18.57 → through 6.18.*

semver versions

7.2.11 → through 7.2.*

semver versions

7.3 → through *

original_commit_for_fix versions

unknown

Other versions: affected

Automatic dependency matching is unavailable for this record. Use the product evidence and publisher’s instructions to check your installation.

What to do

Compare your installed product and version with the affected versions above. A matching product name alone does not confirm exposure.

No structured fix or remediation guidance is available here. Check the full source description and vendor’s latest advisory for a patch or workaround; do not assume another version is safe.

cve.new guidance unless attributed to a publisher. This page does not inspect your installation.

Public exploit evidence

No public exploit reference is identified in the imported evidence. This is not a claim that no exploit exists.

Original source description

Read the full publisher description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

namespace: unhash a dentry before detaching the mounts on it

unlink(), rmdir() and rename() remove the entry from the filesystem, call detach_mounts() on the entry with the inode locked and then call d_delete() once the inode is unlocked.

The thing is that between detach_mounts() and d_delete() the dentry is still hashed and positive. But after detach_mounts() nothing covers the dentry anymore. A lookup that finds this dentry in the dcache can uncover what the mounts hid.

That's a problem when unlinking files or directories that are mountpoints in other mount namespaces. Everybody who had the underlying entry covered can race the detach_mount() call until d_delete() has run.

The race window isn't all that small. It encompasses namespace_unlock() with a full synchronize_rcu_expedited() grace period and the inode_unlock() of the entry.

In my experiments three walkers that kept trying read an overmounted file in 11938 of the 16140 unlinks that removed its mountpoint from a bind mount of the filesystem within a minute.

Fun fact, d_invalidate() has the same ordering problem but gets it right. It unhashes the dentry first and detaches the mounts afterwards. Let's do the same in __detach_mounts():

  • A lookup that hasn't found the dentry yet misses it in the dcache and waits for the directory lock that the caller holds until the name is gone for good.

  • A lockless lookup that found it already fails the mount_lock check while the dentry still counts as a mountpoint and the d_seq check once it doesn't, and retries.

This fixes the lockless path. We still need to fix the reference count lookup in a follow-up patch.

So d_drop() the dentry. The dentry stays positive and held but can't be found anymore. Then proceed with the detach and unlink.

Reproducer:

The reads were counted with the program below, three walkers for 60 s in a VM with 4 CPUs. The race window is stretched with the debug patch pasted here. fs.detach_race_walk_us sleeps in lookup_fast() once it found a mountpoint dentry and before its mounts are crossed. fs.detach_race_unlink_us sleeps in vfs_unlink() between detach_mounts() and d_delete().

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 /*

  • unlink_covered: unlink a file that is a mountpoint in a detached copy of
  • its mount, against lookups that open it through that copy.
  • A is a tmpfs with the file f1 (content SECRET_F) and the plain file
  • MARK_A. A' is an open_tree(OPEN_TREE_CLONE) copy of A with MARK_A bound
  • on A'/f1, held through an O_PATH fd on its root once the tree fd is
  • closed. Walkers open f1 through that fd while the driver unlinks A/f1,
  • where nothing is mounted on it. A walker may read MARK_A or get ENOENT.
  • A read of SECRET_F is a hit: the name was found after its mount was
  • gone. The lockless walks use openat2(RESOLVE_CACHED).
  • usage: unlink_covered [-t seconds] [-w walkers] */ #ifndef _GNU_SOURCE #define _GNU_SOURCE #endif #include <errno.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <pthread.h> #include <stdatomic.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <sys/mount.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <sys/syscall.h> #include <linux/openat2.h>

#ifndef __NR_open_tree #define __NR_open_tree 428 #endif #ifndef __NR_move_mount #define __NR_move_mount 429 #endif #ifndef __NR_openat2 #define __NR_openat2 437 #endif #ifndef OPEN_TREE_CLONE #define OPEN_TREE_CLONE 1 #endif #ifndef OPEN_TREE_CLOEXEC #define OPEN_TREE_CLOEXEC O_CLOEXEC #endif #ifndef MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH #define MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH 0x00000004 #endif

#define WORK "/tmp/uc" #define ADIR WORK "/A"

static int duration = 60, nwalkers = 3; static atomic_int stop, writer_waiting; static pthread_rwlock_t cur_lock = PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER; static int cur_fd = -1; /* the root of A', -1 wh ---truncated---

References

8 sources

Inside the record

Evidence available

Package identity · not supplied
Version evidence
Remediation guidance · not supplied
Weakness classification · not supplied
Additional publishers · not supplied

Describes the evidence in this view, not whether the product is safe.

Original records

CVE-2026-98981

View the latest unmodified CVE JSON from the official source. It may be newer than this imported page.

cve.new JSON →

Environment requirements

These conditions apply together as specified by the publisher. A matching product name alone does not establish exposure.

Linux · platform conditions

Any condition may hold

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 5.10.273

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 5.15.224

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 6.1.191

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 6.6.160

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 6.12.114

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 6.18.57

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 7.2.11

Vulnerable product

cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

From (inclusive): 3.18

Before: 7.3

Applicability preview
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    "nodes": [
      {
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        "negate": false,
        "cpeMatch": [
          {
            "vulnerable": true,
            "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
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          },
          {
            "vulnerable": true,
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          {
            "vulnerable": true,
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Contributing organizations · 1
Linux

Assigning organization

2026-10-30

Timeline

All times UTC
  1. Advisory published

    Publication date supplied by the source.

  2. Source updated

    Latest modification date supplied by the source.

  3. Last imported by cve.new

    Latest catalog import, not the date we first saw this advisory.

What changed

Follow changes
No substantive changes have been recorded here yet. History starts when cve.new observes a change after tracking is enabled; earlier edits are not reconstructed.

Large field values are marked as truncated previews. Original source snapshots remain retained.