---
cve: "CVE-2026-89767"
severity: "HIGH"
cvss: 7.8
epss: "0.2%"
vendor: "Linux"
kev: false
exploited: false
published: "2026-09-11 20:20:07"
tags: [cve, security, high]
source: tsecurity.de CVE-Dossier
exported: "2026-09-20T21:47:01+02:00"
---

# CVE-2026-89767

> 7.8 HIGH

## Beschreibung

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ovl: fix double end_creating() on the casefold-mismatch path

ovl_create_real() releases the new dentry twice when the casefold
consistency check fails.  The S_IFDIR branch calls end_creating() and
sets err, then falls through to the common out: label which calls
end_creating() on the same dentry again:

	case S_IFDIR:
		newdentry = ovl_do_mkdir(ofs, dir, newdentry, attr->mode);
		err = PTR_ERR_OR_ZERO(newdentry);
		if (!err && ofs->casefold != ovl_dentry_casefolded(newdentry)) {
			pr_warn_ratelimited(...);
			end_creating(newdentry);	/* first */
			err = -EINVAL;
		}
		break;
	...
	if (err)
		goto out;
	...
 out:
	if (err) {
		end_creating(newdentry);	/* second, same dentry */
		return ERR_PTR(err);
	}

end_creating() is end_dirop(), which does inode_unlock() on the parent
and dput() on the dentry, so the parent directory's i_rwsem is unlocked
twice and the dentry is put twice.  The second unlock releases a lock
that is not held, which is what wedges every later creation under that
parent, and the second dput() drops a reference that was never taken.

The branch was added by commit dfc7da402ccc ("ovl: Check for casefold
consistency when creating new dentries") as a bare dput(), which already
released the reference twice; commit fe497f0759e0 ("VFS: change
vfs_mkdir() to unlock on failure.") converted both sites to
end_creating(), adding the double unlock.

This is reachable by an unprivileged user.  The casefold consistency of
the layers is validated at mount time in ovl_parse_layer(), and again on
every lookup in ovl_lookup_single(), but ofs->workdir is the internal
"work" subdirectory created inside the user-supplied workdir, and that
subdirectory is not re-checked.  Marking it casefolded after the mount
therefore makes every ovl_create_temp() inherit the wrong state - and
that path reaches ovl_create_real() through ovl_start_creating_temp(),
which uses start_creating() with a generated name and so never runs the
lookup-time check.

  unshare -Urm
  mount -t tmpfs -o casefold=utf8-12.1.0 tmpfs mnt
  mkdir -p mnt/lower/d mnt/upper mnt/work mnt/merged
  mount -t overlay ovl -o lowerdir=mnt/lower,\
        upperdir=mnt/upper,workdir=mnt/work mnt/merged
  chattr +F mnt/work/work
  mkdir mnt/merged/d/sub		# directory copy-up

  overlayfs: wrong inherited casefold (work/#5)

and the next copy-up blocks forever on the parent's i_rwsem:

  mkdir           D  start_creating+0x65/0xb0
                     ovl_start_creating_temp+0xb0/0xe0 [overlay]
                     ovl_create_temp+0xa3/0x1d0 [overlay]
                     ovl_copy_up_one+0x1f1c/0x21c0 [overlay]
                     ovl_copy_up_flags+0xf5/0x140 [overlay]
                     ovl_create_object+0xb7/0x220 [overlay]
                     ovl_mkdir+0x23/0x40 [overlay]

Drop the end_creating() from the branch and let out: own the cleanup,
which is what every other error path in this function already does.

## CVSS-Vektor

```
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
```

| Metrik | Wert | Bewertung |
|---|---|---|
| AV Angriffsvektor | Lokal | good |
| AC Komplexität | Gering | bad |
| PR Privilegien | Gering | warn |
| UI Interaktion | Keine | bad |
| S Scope | Unverändert | good |
| C Vertraulichkeit | Hoch | bad |
| I Integrität | Hoch | bad |
| A Verfügbarkeit | Hoch | bad |

## Patch verfügbar (OSV)

- Kernel ≥ 6.18.51
- Kernel ≥ 7.2.4

## Referenzen

- <https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fa220bc0f84597cb6de665e5b5021c5901ddf00>
- <https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b1aa8ab78a8e87aee9e306971465408e059f839a>
- <https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/077ab8985ee278c3d8618182d335b0f0cd919e16>

---
_Exportiert aus dem [tsecurity.de CVE-Dossier](https://tsecurity.de/cve?cve=CVE-2026-89767) · Datenquellen: EUVD (ENISA), NVD, OSV, CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS, Exploit-DB, BSI BITS_