CVE-2026-98990
Low risk· EPSS 7%Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk7th percentile - higher than 7% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, shrink_submounts() and mark_mounts_for_expiry() first collect mounts to unmount and then unmount them. Unmounting the first mount changes the propagation tree, so the second mount can be unmounted even though it is busy, leaving it marked MNT_SYNC_UMOUNT while still in use. This affects mounts with MNT_SHRINKABLE, such as automounted submounts of NFS, AFS, CIFS, or tracefs under debugfs.
Risk Assessment
A busy filesystem can be forcibly unmounted, potentially causing data unavailability or system instability. Exploitation requires local access and specific mount configurations.
Recommendation
Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix. Avoid unnecessary use of automounted submounts (NFS, AFS, CIFS, tracefs) in high-risk environments.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
See all- CVE-2026-43603Medium
A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux GPU driver could potentially lead to a kernel crash. This may result in a denial of service on the affected system.
- CVE-2026-99270High
A use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's reqsk_timer_handler() function. When TCP socket migration fails at inet_ehash_insert(), the code jumps to the no_ownership label and immediately frees the new reqsk via __reqsk_free() without stopping its timer, potentially leading to a UAF.
- CVE-2026-99269High
In the Linux kernel sched_ext scheduler, a task can be found on a non-local DSQ while the CPU that dispatched it is still running ops.dequeue() and hasn't cleared SCX_OPSS_DISPATCHING. The DSQ consume and move paths don't wait for dispatch to finish and can operate on the task concurrently with the dispatcher. The fix adds scx_wait_dispatching() before operating on the task.
- CVE-2026-99268Unknown
In io_uring with IORING_SETUP_DEFER_TASKRUN, completions are queued as local work and only become CQEs when the submitter enters the kernel to wait for events. io_uring_poll() reports EPOLLIN if local work is pending, but only if the work exists at call time; after DEFER_TASKRUN was added, the ->poll_wq wakeup was replaced by directly waking the submitter, so poll() can sleep despite pending work. The fix wakes ->poll_wq when the first entry is put on the work list, using an RCU callback when needed.
- CVE-2026-99267Unknown
In io_uring NAPI with dynamic tracking, a NAPI id not seen for a minute should be dropped from the ring's busy-poll list. However, the timeout is computed incorrectly — SEC_CONVERSION is used instead of the number of jiffies per second, giving about eight years for HZ=1000 and overflowing on 32-bit systems. As a result, entries are never removed and every wait polls all historical ids.
- CVE-2026-99266Unknown
In io_uring zcrx, io_zcrx_queue_cqe() computes the buffer offset in its area from net_iov_idx(), which is an unsigned int, so the shift is done in 32 bits and only the result is widened to the u64 placed in the CQE. An area can be up to 1 TB, so for every niov beyond the first 4 GB the CQE points the application at a buffer 4 GB (or a multiple) below the correct one. The application reads wrong data and returns a buffer it doesn't own via the refill queue while the real one is never given back.
- CVE-2026-99265Unknown
In io_uring/openclose, io_pipe_fixed() installs both ends of the pipe in the fixed file table, drops ->uring_lock, and copies the slot numbers to the application. If that faults, it takes the lock again and removes whatever is in these slots. If the request is run by io-wq, the lock really is dropped and the slots are visible to others; by the time the error path gets to them, they may have been closed and reused (by IORING_OP_CLOSE, direct open/accept, or IORING_REGISTER_FILES_UPDATE), causing removal of a file unrelated to the failed request. The fix performs the copy with the lock held.
- CVE-2026-99264High
A bug was fixed in the Linux kernel's io_uring/net handling of recv retries on uncommitted buffers. When a receive was retried after a partial transfer, the kernel could hand out buffer memory that the retried request was still writing to, causing data overwrites. The request is now completed with the bytes received instead of retried, and MSG_WAITALL is no longer honoured for incremental buffers or multi-buffer bundles.
- CVE-2026-99263Unknown
In io_uring/poll, if a wakeup sets IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG between the owning task consuming the existing instance of IO_POLL_RETRY_FLAG and the loop check in io_poll_check_events(), request processing stalls until an unrelated wakeup arrives. The fix uses atomic_cmpxchg instead of atomic_sub_return to guarantee both the count v and poll_refs are 0 and no wakeups are missed.
- CVE-2026-99262Unknown
In io_uring/timeout, an IORING_OP_TIMEOUT run by io-wq due to IOSQE_ASYNC has the same problem as poll, futex, and waitid. io_wq_submit_work() checks IO_WQ_WORK_CANCEL only once before issuing the request; a cancel in between flags the work, gets -EALREADY, and searches ->timeout_list in vain while the worker adds the request and starts the timer. Nobody checks the flag again and the timeout runs its course, and at ring exit a task can get stuck for the full duration. The fix checks the flag under ->timeout_lock and fails the request if set.
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: namespace: check a submount for references right before unmounting it shrink_submounts() and mark_mounts_for_expiry() first collect all the mounts they are allowed to unmount and then unmount them. Whether a mount is busy is decided by propagate_mount_busy() on the tree. But unmounting the first mount changes the tree that the second one propagates into. propagate_umount() moves a surviving overmount off a copy it unmounts and mounts it where the copy was mounted. If that's where the propagated copy of the second victim is looked up the overmount becomes a candidate of the second umount_tree(). It's childless and so trim_one() commits it without looking at its reference count. So a synchronous umount pulls out a busy mount that is in use somewhere else and marks it MNT_SYNC_UMOUNT while it has users: umount2(/tmp/plshrink/p1, 0) = 0 errno 0 cwd is (unreachable) The same two umounts requested one after the other fail with EBUSY. This needs a mount with MNT_SHRINKABLE, i.e., automounted submounts of NFS, AFS and CIFS or the tracefs mount below debugfs. Bind mounts inherit the flag. Check each mount right before it is unmounted under the same hold of namespace_sem and mount_lock as the umount itself. Make sure that the algorithm stays linear.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

