CVE-2026-98986
Received
Received - Intake
Use-after-free in Linux Kernel Mount Namespace
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-98986, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-10-23
Last updated on: 2026-10-23
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
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.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
