Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2026-97950

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

configfs: pin the symlink target's dirent instead of chasing ->ci_dentry

create_link() reads the target's configfs_dirent from
item->ci_dentry->d_fsdata, relying on the item reference taken by
get_target(). That reference pins the item, not its dentry: the dentry is
pinned by DCACHE_PERSISTENT, which configfs_remove_dir() releases via
simple_rmdir() while the item is still alive. A symlink racing with rmdir
of its target can therefore find ->ci_dentry freed and its dirent
released, triggering WARN_ON(!atomic_read(&sd->s_count)) in configfs_get().

Take the dirent in get_target() as well, under ->d_lock and atomically
with the item reference, and pass it down to create_link(). A hashed
dentry has not been killed yet, so its ->d_fsdata reference keeps the
dirent alive there.

Published 2026-09-25 · last modified 2026-10-21.