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High · 7.8 CVE-2026-89767 EUVD-2026-76679GHSA-mvh9-78p9-62x7

ovl: fix double end_creating() on the casefold-mismatch path

Published Sep 11, 2026 · Updated Oct 19, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.14 Package: linux-aws-6.17 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-7.0 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.14 Package: linux-azure-6.17 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-7.0 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.14 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.17 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fde-7.0 Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.14 Package: linux-gcp-6.17 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-7.0 Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.14 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-7.0 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.17 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-7.0 Package: linux-nvidia-bos Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.14 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oem-7.0 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-7.0 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.17 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-7.0 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

ovl: fix double end_creating() on the casefold-mismatch path

ovl_create_real() releases the new dentry twice when the casefold
consistency check fails. The S_IFDIR branch calls end_creating() and
sets err, then falls through to the common out: label which calls
end_creating() on the same dentry again:

case S_IFDIR:
newdentry = ovl_do_mkdir(ofs, dir, newdentry, attr->mode);
err = PTR_ERR_OR_ZERO(newdentry);
if (!err && ofs->casefold != ovl_dentry_casefolded(newdentry)) {
pr_warn_ratelimited(...);
end_creating(newdentry); /* first */
err = -EINVAL;
}
break;
...
if (err)
goto out;
...
out:
if (err) {
end_creating(newdentry); /* second, same dentry */
return ERR_PTR(err);
}

end_creating() is end_dirop(), which does inode_unlock() on the parent
and dput() on the dentry, so the parent directory's i_rwsem is unlocked
twice and the dentry is put twice. The second unlock releases a lock
that is not held, which is what wedges every later creation under that
parent, and the second dput() drops a reference that was never taken.

The branch was added by commit dfc7da402ccc ("ovl: Check for casefold
consistency when creating new dentries") as a bare dput(), which already
released the reference twice; commit fe497f0759e0 ("VFS: change
vfs_mkdir() to unlock on failure.") converted both sites to
end_creating(), adding the double unlock.

This is reachable by an unprivileged user. The casefold consistency of
the layers is validated at mount time in ovl_parse_layer(), and again on
every lookup in ovl_lookup_single(), but ofs->workdir is the internal
"work" subdirectory created inside the user-supplied workdir, and that
subdirectory is not re-checked. Marking it casefolded after the mount
therefore makes every ovl_create_temp() inherit the wrong state - and
that path reaches ovl_create_real() through ovl_start_creating_temp(),
which uses start_creating() with a generated name and so never runs the
lookup-time check.

unshare -Urm
mount -t tmpfs -o casefold=utf8-12.1.0 tmpfs mnt
mkdir -p mnt/lower/d mnt/upper mnt/work mnt/merged
mount -t overlay ovl -o lowerdir=mnt/lower,\
upperdir=mnt/upper,workdir=mnt/work mnt/merged
chattr +F mnt/work/work
mkdir mnt/merged/d/sub # directory copy-up

overlayfs: wrong inherited casefold (work/#5)

and the next copy-up blocks forever on the parent's i_rwsem:

mkdir D start_creating+0x65/0xb0
ovl_start_creating_temp+0xb0/0xe0 [overlay]
ovl_create_temp+0xa3/0x1d0 [overlay]
ovl_copy_up_one+0x1f1c/0x21c0 [overlay]
ovl_copy_up_flags+0xf5/0x140 [overlay]
ovl_create_object+0xb7/0x220 [overlay]
ovl_mkdir+0x23/0x40 [overlay]

Drop the end_creating() from the branch and let out: own the cleanup,
which is what every other error path in this function already does.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 6.18 6.18.51

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 7.2.6-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux 7.0.0-42.42 USN-8959-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-aws 7.0.0-1016.17 USN-8959-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-azure 7.0.0-1020.21 USN-9019-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-azure-fde 7.0.0-1019.19 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-gcp 7.0.0-1016.18 USN-8959-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-gke 7.0.0-1010.11 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-ibm +1 7.0.0-1017.17 USN-8960-1, USN-8959-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-nvidia +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-oracle 7.0.0-1015.16 USN-8959-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-raspi 7.0.0-1023.23 USN-9021-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-realtime 7.0.0-43.43.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-riscv 7.0.0-42.42.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws-7.0 7.0.0-1017.18~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fde-7.0 7.0.0-1019.19~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-7.0 7.0.0-1017.19~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-hwe-7.0 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1 USN-8959-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle-7.0 7.0.0-1016.18~24.04.1 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +27 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv-7.0 7.0.0-42.42.1~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +32 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.14 +1 No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed kernel-source 7.2.7-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11880-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 kernel-livepatch-6.18.51-120.162 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-3187
Amazon Linux 2023 perf6.18 +12 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-3187

Advisories 8

References