afs: Fix reinitialisation of the inode, in particular ->lock_work

published 2026-08-15 2 mo ago modified 2026-10-30 10 d ago also EUVD-2026-59274

cvss: 7.8; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.2%; EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

It seems that initalising afs_vnode::lock_work a single time in the slab's init function isn't sufficient for work_structs. This results in the DEBUG_OBJECTS debugging stuff producing a warning occasionally when running the generic/131 xfstest:

ODEBUG: activate not available (active state 0) object: 0000000016d8760f object type: work_struct hint: afs_lock_work+0x0/0x220 WARNING: lib/debugobjects.c:629 at debug_print_object+0x4b/0x90, CPU#3: locktest/7695 ... CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 7695 Comm: locktest Tainted: G S 7.1.0-build3+ #2771 PREEMPT ... RIP: 0010:debug_print_object+0x65/0x90 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? __pfx_afs_lock_work+0x10/0x10 debug_object_activate+0x122/0x170 insert_work+0x25/0x60 __queue_work+0x2e0/0x340 queue_delayed_work_on+0x48/0x70 afs_fl_release_private+0x57/0x70 locks_release_private+0x5c/0xa0 locks_free_lock+0xe/0x20 posix_lock_inode+0x55f/0x5b0 locks_lock_inode_wait+0x81/0x140 ? file_write_and_wait_range+0x50/0x70 afs_lock+0xcd/0x110 fcntl_setlk+0x10d/0x260 do_fcntl+0x24e/0x5b0 __do_sys_fcntl+0x6a/0x90 do_syscall_64+0x11e/0x310 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x71/0x79

Fix this by reinitialising ->lock_work after allocating an inode.

Also, flush ->lock_work when the inode is being evicted to make sure it's not still running.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 2 links 6

Linux Linux 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.114, 6.18.40, 7.1.5, 7.2

debian ubuntu

linux Debian 13 6.12.115-2
linux Debian 14 7.1.5-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72375

linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-38.38
linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.9
linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.15
linux-azure Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-38.38.1
linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1013.13

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72375

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-72375 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 5.5

kernel: afs: Fix reinitialisation of the inode, in particular ->lock_work

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 23 d ago (2026-10-16)

Exploit prediction

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2026-72375
NVD CVE-2026-72375

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary