{"id":"CVE-2026-53244","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2026-53244","generatedAt":"2026-10-28T03:25:17.662Z","title":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: VFS: fix possible failure to unlock in nfsd4_create_file() atomic_create() in fs/namei.c drops the reference to the dentry when it returns an error.","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nVFS: fix possible failure to unlock in nfsd4_create_file()\n\natomic_create() in fs/namei.c drops the reference to the dentry\nwhen it returns an error.\nThis behaviour was imported into dentry_create() so that it\nwill drop the reference if an error is returned from atomic_create(),\nthough not if vfs_create() returns an error (in the case where\n->atomic_create is not supported).\n\nThe caller - nfsd4_create_file() - is made aware of this by checking\npath->dentry, which will either be a counted reference to a dentry, or\nan error pointer.\n\nHowever the change to use start_creating()/end_creating() (which landed\nshortly before the dentry_create() change landed, though was likely\ndeveloped around the same time) means that nfsd4_create_file() *needs* a\nvalid dentry so that it can unlock the parent.\n\nThe net result is that if NFSD exports a filesystem which uses\n->atomic_create, and if a call to ->atomic_create returns an error, then\nnfsd4_create_file() will pass an error pointer to end_creating()\nand the parent will not be unlocked.\n\nFix this by changing dentry_create() to make sure path->dentry is always\na valid dentry, never an error-pointer.  The actual error is already\nreturned a different way.\n\nNote that if ->atomic_create() returns a different dentry (which may not\nbe possible in practice) we are guaranteed (because it is only ever\nprovided by d_spliace_alias()) that it will have the same d_parent and\nso it will have the same effect when passed to end_creating().","published":"2026-06-25T09:16:42.000Z","lastModified":"2026-07-07T22:19:59.000Z","status":"Analyzed","sourceIdentifier":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":7.5,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"},"cwe":[],"affected":["linux/linux kernel"],"epss":{"score":0.00488,"percentile":0.41713,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"high","text":"High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.49%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e824bbd4d224cce4b5fb59cc9dcd3447fe0b7e44","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ee1f40759a50b1800c98c1c369afd5b3e44ad987","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53244","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}