Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12 VFS fs/namei.c nfsd4_create_file atomic_create information disclosure

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12. Affected by this vulnerability is the function nfsd4_create_file of the file fs/namei.c of the component VFS. The manipulation of the argument atomic_create leads to information disclosure. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-53244. There is no exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.0.12. It has been rated as problematic. This issue affects the function nfsd4_create_file of the file fs/namei.c of the component VFS. The manipulation of the argument atomic_create with an unknown input leads to a information disclosure vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-200. The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information. Impacted is confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: VFS: fix possible failure to unlock in nfsd4_create_file() atomic_create() in fs/namei.c drops the reference to the dentry when it returns an error. This behaviour was imported into dentry_create() so that it will drop the reference if an error is returned from atomic_create(), though not if vfs_create() returns an error (in the case where ->atomic_create is not supported). The caller - nfsd4_create_file() - is made aware of this by checking path->dentry, which will either be a counted reference to a dentry, or an error pointer. However the change to use start_creating()/end_creating() (which landed shortly before the dentry_create() change landed, though was likely developed around the same time) means that nfsd4_create_file() *needs* a valid dentry so that it can unlock the parent. The net result is that if NFSD exports a filesystem which uses ->atomic_create, and if a call to ->atomic_create returns an error, then nfsd4_create_file() will pass an error pointer to end_creating() and the parent will not be unlocked. Fix this by changing dentry_create() to make sure path->dentry is always a valid dentry, never an error-pointer. The actual error is already returned a different way. Note that if ->atomic_create() returns a different dentry (which may not be possible in practice) we are guaranteed (because it is only ever provided by d_spliace_alias()) that it will have the same d_parent and so it will have the same effect when passed to end_creating().

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-53244 since 06/09/2026. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 06/25/2026). MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1592 for this issue.

Upgrading to version 7.0.13 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch ee1f40759a50b1800c98c1c369afd5b3e44ad987/e824bbd4d224cce4b5fb59cc9dcd3447fe0b7e44 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9
• 7.0.10
• 7.0.11
• 7.0.12

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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