CVE-2026-52990

About vulnerability

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

fsnotify: fix inode reference leak in fsnotify_recalc_mask()

fsnotify_recalc_mask() fails to handle the return value of __fsnotify_recalc_mask(), which may return an inode pointer that needs to be released via fsnotify_drop_object() when the connector’s HAS_IREF flag transitions from set to cleared.

This manifests as a hung task with the following call trace:

INFO: task umount:1234 blocked for more than 120 seconds. Call Trace: __schedule schedule fsnotify_sb_delete generic_shutdown_super kill_anon_super cleanup_mnt task_work_run do_exit do_group_exit

The race window that triggers the iref leak:

Thread A (adding mark) Thread B (removing mark) ────────────────────── ──────────────────────── fsnotify_add_mark_locked(): fsnotify_add_mark_list(): spin_lock(conn->lock) add mark_B(evictable) to list spin_unlock(conn->lock) return

/* —- gap: no lock held —- */

fsnotify_detach_mark(mark_A): spin_lock(mark_A->lock) clear ATTACHED flag on mark_A spin_unlock(mark_A->lock) fsnotify_put_mark(mark_A)

fsnotify_recalc_mask(): spin_lock(conn->lock) __fsnotify_recalc_mask(): /* mark_A skipped: ATTACHED cleared / / only mark_B(evictable) remains / want_iref = false has_iref = true / not yet cleared / -> HAS_IREF transitions true -> false -> returns inode pointer spin_unlock(conn->lock) / BUG: return value discarded!

• iput() and fsnotify_put_sb_watched_objects()
• are never called */

Fix this by deferring the transition true -> false of HAS_IREF flag from fsnotify_recalc_mask() (Thread A) to fsnotify_put_mark() (thread B).

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , TuxCare 9.6 ESU

Affected packages:

kernel @ 5.14.0 (+1 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.