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Unscored CVE-2026-98996 EUVD-2026-108790GHSA-5j2w-v2xc-m3r3

fs: don't silently unmount busy mounts

Published Oct 23, 2026 · Updated Nov 10, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel 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-5.15 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.4 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-6.8 Package: linux-aws-7.0 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-aws-hwe Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-4.15 Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.15 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.4 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-6.8 Package: linux-azure-7.0 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 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-6.8 Package: linux-azure-fde-7.0 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-4.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.4 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-6.8 Package: linux-gcp-7.0 Package: linux-gcp-fips 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-5.15 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.14 Package: linux-hwe-6.17 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-7.0 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-ibm-5.4 Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-iot Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 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-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-lts-xenial 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-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-7.0 Package: linux-nvidia-bos Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-igx 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-6.17 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-5.15 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-oracle-7.0 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-realtime-6.8 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.15 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-6.8 Package: linux-riscv-7.0 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

fs: don't silently unmount busy mounts

The propagate_mount_busy() helper exists to decide whether a synchronous
can suceed. It does that by looking at the copies of the victims in the
mounts its parent propagates to. One of those functions from propagation
hell.

It skips a copy that has child mounts except for the case of a single
child mount covering the copy's root. That algorithm used to be exact.
It isn't anymore.

Originally only childless copies were unmounted during propagation.
And 1064f874abc0 ("mnt: Tuck mounts under others instead of creating
shadow/side mounts.") ended up adding covered mounts to both sides in
one go.

Along came 99b19d16471e ("mnt: In propgate_umount handle visiting mounts
in any order") and that started to unmount more than before:

[1]: A copy of a mount is unmounted when each of its children is either
its overmount or a copy of the victim itself. In the former case
the overmount gets reparented. In the latter case the copy of the
victim will end up being unmounted.

So propagate_umount() ended up being rewritten without adjusting
propagate_mount_busy(). And currently propagate_mount_busy() doesn't
look at copies of the victim that have two or more children nor a single
child that is not the overmount.

So any such copy in [1] is not checked for
references. The result is that a synchronous unmount succeeds, pulling
out a mount that is still in use.

A container can run into this with its own mounts. The host shares a
tree with the container and the host has a mount in that tree:

mount -t tmpfs none /mnt
mount --make-shared /mnt
mount -t tmpfs none /mnt/a

The container's /mnt is a slave copy of the host mount. The container
now takes a detached copy of the tree and mounts that copy beneath its
propagated copy of /mnt/a and keeps the file descriptor to the tree
open:

unshare -m --propagation unchanged
mount --make-rslave /
fd = open_tree(AT_FDCWD, "/mnt", OPEN_TREE_CLONE | AT_RECURSIVE)
move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt/a", MOVE_MOUNT_BENEATH)

grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo
775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646
777 775 ... /mnt/a ... master:646
776 777 ... /mnt/a ... master:647
778 777 ... /mnt/a/a ... master:647

The now attached tree (777) is now mounted beneath the container's copy
of /mnt/a. That's also where the host mount sits (as seen from the host
mount namespace). So the propagated copy (776) of the host's mount is on
top of its root and the copy of that (778) is inside it. Now the host
runs:

umount /mnt/a

and it succeeds. The moved tree tree and the copy inside of it are gone
from the container. Now only the propagated copy is left and it got
reparented to where it was before:

grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo
775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646
776 775 ... /mnt/a ...

But the file descriptor still refers to the moved tree. So a synchronous
umount detached a mount that is still in use.

Teach propagate_mount_busy() the same checks that propagate_umount()
does. It now checks for a single victim mount without children
for which it can assume that MNT_LOCKED is cleared on every copy like
propagate_umount() does. The copies form chains. IOW, when a copy itself
receives propagation from the victim's parent then the mount at the same
mountpoint inside that copy is a copy as well. Whether a mount receives
propagation from the victim's can simply be checked by walking its
masters. Walk each chain once from its top so we are sure that nested
copies stay linear. Check every reference once of every copy that gets
unmounted.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 4.1.43 – < 4.2, 4.4.78 – < 4.5, 4.9.39 – < 4.10, 4.11.12 – < 4.12, 4.12.3 – < 4.13, 4.13 4.2

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 7.2.11-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.117-1 —
Debian 12 linux No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 24.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.10 linux 7.3.0-10.10 —
Ubuntu 26.10 linux-aws +4 7.3.0-1004.4 —
Ubuntu 26.10 linux-azure-fde 7.3.0-1004.5 —
Ubuntu 26.10 linux-riscv +1 7.3.0-10.10.1 —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux 7.0.0-43.43 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-aws 7.0.0-1017.18 USN-9018-1
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 7.0.0-1017.19 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-gke 7.0.0-1010.11 USN-9020-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-ibm +1 7.0.0-1018.18 USN-9018-1
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS linux-oracle 7.0.0-1016.18 USN-9018-1
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 +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux +46 No fix yet —
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 7.0.0-43.43~24.04.1 USN-9018-2
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-7.0 7.0.0-43.43.1~24.04.2 —
Show 19 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +59 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 18.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 16.04 LTS linux-fips No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 16.04 LTS linux-fips No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-preview 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux +21 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS linux +12 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS linux +7 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS linux-aws +2 No fix yet —

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 kernel No fix yet —

Advisories 6

References