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---
Published: 2026-10-23
Score: n/a
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: Information Disclosure
Action: Assess Impact
AI Analysis

Impact

The Linux kernel contained a race condition that occurred when unlinking, removing, or renaming a filesystem entry that was also a mount point. During this operation the code would detach mounts while keeping the dentry hashed and positive. Because no lock prevented a concurrent lookup from seeing the dentry, an attacker could read or interact with files that were previously hidden by the mount. This flaw allowed a local user with permission to unlink a mount point to potentially access underlying data and thereby compromise confidentiality.

Affected Systems

All Linux kernel releases that had not yet incorporated the race‑condition fix are affected. The CNA for the vulnerability lists the vendor as "Linux:Linux" and provides no specific version range, meaning every distribution running an unpatched kernel version may be vulnerable.

Risk and Exploitability

The EPSS score is not available and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, indicating no publicly known exploits as of this analysis. Nevertheless, the race window spans the namespace unlock and inode unlock periods, giving a sizable opportunity for a local attacker to quickly perform an unauthorized read by racing a lookup against the unlink operation. The lack of a CVSS score makes formal severity hard to quantify, but the ability to uncover hidden data suggests a potentially high impact for privileged local users. Remote exploitation would require elevated privileges or a compromised root account.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on October 23, 2026 at 14:53 UTC.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Apply a kernel update that removes the race by unhashing the dentry before detaching mounts (the patch is included in kernels released after the commit 528b383d).
  • If an immediate kernel upgrade is not possible, limit the ability to unlink mount points to trusted administrators and avoid exposing sensitive files through bind mounts to sandboxed or lower‑privilege processes.
  • Enable audit logging for unlink, rename, and mount events and monitor for anomalous removal of mount points, which may indicate exploitation attempts.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on October 23, 2026 at 14:53 UTC.

Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-367

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
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---
Title namespace: unhash a dentry before detaching the mounts on it
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

Subscriptions

Linux Linux Kernel
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-23T12:19:58.507Z

Reserved: 2026-09-25T10:25:14.384Z

Link: CVE-2026-98981

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-23T13:17:19.890

Modified: 2026-10-23T13:17:19.890

Link: CVE-2026-98981

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-10-23T15:00:13Z

Weaknesses
  • CWE-367

    Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition