CVE-2026-98986
Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: namespace: remove the fsnotify marks of a mount namespace in process context mnt_ns_release() drops the last passive reference of a mount namespace and removes its fanotify marks via fsnotify_mntns_delete(). That takes the mutex of every group with a mark on the namespace and the spinlock of the connector. Fine from process context. But mnt_ns_tree_remove() hands the reference the namespace was allocated with to call_rcu() and so the marks are removed from the RCU softirq: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:623 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 0, name: swapper/3 __mutex_lock+0x113/0x24b0 fsnotify_destroy_marks+0x11b/0x3d0 mnt_ns_release_rcu+0x57/0xa0 rcu_core+0x6b6/0x1e40 and lockdep complains about the connector lock being taken from softirq context. A fanotify group with a FAN_MARK_MNTNS mark on the mount namespace of another task is all that's needed. Root in a user namespace can do that for a mount namespace it owns. The task exits and the namespace is freed with the mark still on it. Remove the marks in free_mnt_ns() before the namespace is handed to RCU. That runs in process context once the last active reference is gone. A mark is added through a file descriptor to the namespace which holds an active reference so no mark can show up after that.
View original CVE JSON
{
"id": "CVE-2026-98986",
"sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"published": "2026-10-23T13:17:20.540",
"lastModified": "2026-10-23T13:17:20.540",
"vulnStatus": "Received",
"cveTags": [],
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nnamespace: remove the fsnotify marks of a mount namespace in process context\n\nmnt_ns_release() drops the last passive reference of a mount namespace\nand removes its fanotify marks via fsnotify_mntns_delete(). That takes\nthe mutex of every group with a mark on the namespace and the spinlock\nof the connector. Fine from process context. But mnt_ns_tree_remove()\nhands the reference the namespace was allocated with to call_rcu() and\nso the marks are removed from the RCU softirq:\n\n BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:623\n in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 0, name: swapper/3\n __mutex_lock+0x113/0x24b0\n fsnotify_destroy_marks+0x11b/0x3d0\n mnt_ns_release_rcu+0x57/0xa0\n rcu_core+0x6b6/0x1e40\n\nand lockdep complains about the connector lock being taken from softirq\ncontext. A fanotify group with a FAN_MARK_MNTNS mark on the mount\nnamespace of another task is all that's needed. Root in a user\nnamespace can do that for a mount namespace it owns. The task exits and\nthe namespace is freed with the mark still on it.\n\nRemove the marks in free_mnt_ns() before the namespace is handed to RCU.\nThat runs in process context once the last active reference is gone. A\nmark is added through a file descriptor to the namespace which holds an\nactive reference so no mark can show up after that."
}
],
"affected": [
{
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"affectedData": [
{
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"defaultStatus": "unaffected",
"programFiles": [
"fs/namespace.c"
],
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"versions": [
{
"version": "bf630c40164162ba1d3933c2f5e3397d083e0948",
"lessThan": "888363d74c3b5d32e2accf217add70f8b38e0e2b",
"versionType": "git",
"status": "affected"
},
{
"version": "bf630c40164162ba1d3933c2f5e3397d083e0948",
"lessThan": "9e820a6becdd955a04adbedfd767253a47eedd9e",
"versionType": "git",
"status": "affected"
},
{
"version": "bf630c40164162ba1d3933c2f5e3397d083e0948",
"lessThan": "1a116222acdcc1bc1a8350727ae6f28907d44594",
"versionType": "git",
"status": "affected"
}
]
},
{
"vendor": "Linux",
"product": "Linux",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"programFiles": [
"fs/namespace.c"
],
"repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
"versions": [
{
"version": "6.15",
"status": "affected"
},
{
"version": "0",
"lessThan": "6.15",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "6.18.57",
"lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "7.2.11",
"lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*",
"versionType": "semver",
"status": "unaffected"
},
{
"version": "7.3",
"lessThanOrEqual": "*",
"versionType": "original_commit_for_fix",
"status": "unaffected"
}
]
}
]
}
],
"metrics": {},
"references": [
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1a116222acdcc1bc1a8350727ae6f28907d44594",
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/888363d74c3b5d32e2accf217add70f8b38e0e2b",
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
},
{
"url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9e820a6becdd955a04adbedfd767253a47eedd9e",
"source": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"
}
]
}