Linux Kernel cachefiles cachefiles_get_directory locking

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Linux Kernel. Affected is the function cachefiles_get_directory of the component cachefiles. Performing a manipulation results in locking. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2026-72368. The attack is only possible with local access. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel (affected version unknown). It has been classified as problematic. This affects the function cachefiles_get_directory of the component cachefiles. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a locking vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-667. The product does not properly acquire or release a lock on a resource, leading to unexpected resource state changes and behaviors. This is going to have an impact on integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cachefiles: Fix double unlock in nomem_d_alloc error path When start_creating() fails and returns -ENOMEM, it has already released the parent directory lock in __start_dirop(): static struct dentry *__start_dirop(...) { ... inode_lock_nested(dir, I_MUTEX_PARENT); dentry = lookup_one_qstr_excl(name, parent, lookup_flags); if (IS_ERR(dentry)) inode_unlock(dir); <-- Lock released on error return dentry; } However, the nomem_d_alloc error path in cachefiles_get_directory() unconditionally calls inode_unlock(d_inode(dir)) again, causing a double unlock that corrupts the rwsem state. This is a leftover from commit 7ab96df840e60 which replaced manual locking with start_creating() but failed to update the nomem_d_alloc path (while correctly updating mkdir_error and lookup_error paths).

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-72368 since 08/09/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. 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 08/15/2026).

Applying the patch 26757dac15175f2a42e3537f1ba86e62456d48f1 is able to eliminate this problem.

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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