CVE-2026-68096
Received
Received - Intake
Deadlock in Linux Kernel Audit Subsystem
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-68096, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-10
Last updated on: 2026-08-10
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
audit: fix recursive locking deadlock in audit_dupe_exe()
A deadlock occurs in the audit subsystem when duplicating
executable-related rules.
When a file is moved (e.g., via do_renameat2()), the VFS layer locks
the parent directory (I_MUTEX_PARENT), which synchronously triggers an
fsnotify_move event. If an existing executable audit rule matches the
file being moved, the audit subsystem catches this event and calls
audit_dupe_exe() to duplicate the watch and update the rule. Then,
audit_alloc_mark() would call kern_path_parent() to resolve the path,
leading to a blind attempt to acquire the exact same I_MUTEX_PARENT lock
already held by the task, resulting in the following recursive locking
deadlock:
============================================
WARNING: possible recursive locking detected
6.12.0-55.27.1.el10_0.x86_64+debug #1 Not tainted
--------------------------------------------
mv/5099 is trying to acquire lock:
ffff888132845358 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3},
at: __kern_path_locked+0x10a/0x2f0
but task is already holding lock:
ffff888132846b58 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3},
at: lock_two_directories+0x13f/0x2b0
other info that might help us debug this:
Possible unsafe locking scenario:
CPU0
----
lock(&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1);
lock(&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1);
*** DEADLOCK ***
May be due to missing lock nesting notation
6 locks held by mv/5099:
#0: ffff888112a9c440 (sb_writers#13)
at: do_renameat2+0x34c/0xbc0
#1: ffff888112a9c790 (&type->s_vfs_rename_key#3)
at: do_renameat2+0x415/0xbc0
#2: ffff888132846b58 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1)
at: lock_two_directories+0x13f/0x2b0
#3: ffff888132845358 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/5)
at: lock_two_directories+0x175/0x2b0
#4: ffffffffb3a1fb10 (&fsnotify_mark_srcu)
at: fsnotify+0x454/0x28a0
#5: ffffffffaf886230 (audit_filter_mutex)
at: audit_update_watch+0x36/0x11e0
stack backtrace:
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0x6f/0xb0
print_deadlock_bug.cold+0xbd/0xca
validate_chain+0x83a/0xf00
__lock_acquire+0xcac/0x1d20
lock_acquire.part.0+0x11b/0x360
down_write_nested+0x9f/0x230
__kern_path_locked+0x10a/0x2f0
kern_path_locked+0x26/0x40
audit_alloc_mark+0xfb/0x4f0
audit_dupe_exe+0x6c/0xe0
audit_dupe_rule+0x6c2/0xc00
audit_update_watch+0x4cc/0x11e0
audit_watch_handle_event+0x12c/0x1b0
send_to_group+0x5d0/0x8b0
fsnotify+0x615/0x28a0
fsnotify_move+0x1d8/0x630
vfs_rename+0xdcd/0x1df0
do_renameat2+0x9d4/0xbc0
__x64_sys_renameat+0x192/0x260
do_syscall_64+0x92/0x180
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
RIP: 0033:0x7f0491fe8c4e
Code: 0f 1f 40 00 48 8b 15 c1 e1 16 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff
c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 08 01 00 00 0f 05 <48>
3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 0a c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 15 89
RSP: 002b:00007ffc7210bf38 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000108
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f0491fe8c4e
RDX: 0000000000000003 RSI: 00007ffc7210e6c8 RDI: 00000000ffffff9c
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000001
R10: 00005575eb2dae2a R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575eb2dae2a
R13: 00007ffc7210e6c8 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 00000000ffffff9c
</TASK>
The aforementioned deadlock can be consistently reproduced by running
the script below:
audit-dupe-exe-deadlock.sh
--------------------------
#!/bin/bash
auditctl -D
mkdir -p /tmp/foo
touch /tmp/file
auditctl -a always,exit -F exe=/tmp/file -F path=/tmp/file -S all -k dr
mv /tmp/file /tmp/foo/file
rm -Rf /tmp/foo
This patch fixes the issue by introducing struct audit_watch_ctx to pass
the fsnotify event context down to audit_alloc_mark(). By utilizing the
already-resolved directory inode provided by the event, we bypass the
kern_path_parent() path resol
---truncated---
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.12.0-55.27.1.el10_0 |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
