CVE-2026-99174 json
ext4: free the sbi after a grace period
published 2026-10-28 11 d ago modified 2026-10-30 9 d ago also EUVD-2026-111926
- cvss
- —
- not scored
- 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
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: free the sbi after a grace period
ext4_get_link() follows a symlink that keeps its target in a data block in rcu pathwalk mode with ext4_getblk(EXT4_GET_BLOCKS_CACHED_NOWAIT). That reads s_mount_state in the ASSERT() of ext4_getblk() and again in ext4_es_lookup_extent(), and the lookup bumps the extent status hit or miss counter, all through sb->s_fs_info.
ext4_put_super() destroys those counters, clears sb->s_fs_info and frees the sbi without waiting for a grace period. A pathwalk that is still in ext4_get_link() when the last reference to the mount goes away then dereferences a NULL s_fs_info, the freed sbi or the destroyed percpu counters.
With a pathwalk held up in ext4_get_link() while the last reference goes away:
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x00000000000000a8-0x00000000000000af] RIP: 0010:ext4_getblk+0xf0/0x640 Call Trace: <TASK> ext4_get_link+0x26c/0x410 pick_link+0xf96/0x1780 step_into_slowpath+0x9b8/0x1250 path_lookupat+0x484/0xb00 filename_lookup+0x1f1/0x5b0 vfs_statx+0xd7/0x3b0 vfs_fstatat+0x4d/0x90 __do_sys_newfstatat+0xa0/0x100 do_syscall_64+0x10e/0x5e0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
So far that has been hard to hit. umount(2) waits for a grace period in namespace_unlock() before it drops the mount, so only a mount whose last reference goes away elsewhere, like the close of a file or a chdir out of a lazily unmounted directory, can race a walker.
Keep sb->s_fs_info and free the sbi together with the extent status counters after a grace period. Split the counters out of ext4_es_unregister_shrinker() for that. The shrinker still gets wasted in ext4_put_super(), the counters go with the sbi.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 6.1.191, 6.6.161, 6.12.115, 6.18.59, 7.2.13, 7.3
- linux Debian 13 6.12.115-2
- linux Debian 14 7.2.13-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-99174
- linux Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-10.10
- linux-aws Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-10.10.1
- linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-1004.4
- linux-realtime Ubuntu 26.10 7.3.0-10.10.1
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-99174
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
- kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.161.1-1
azure linux advisories AZL-111326
Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf3bd5824c985b350d150bcd76698ee5e993fcba commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4b0598fad51a978fcbda9d55eef6b5bd3cbe7d8 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/4ce0e27ea610663a9cdc04e3bca38559147428d4 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/80d5db1686b05fad6f384be017714297d828a714 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/87d29b8b849738d52fe820d495fa0aa2d5a1ec82 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/c17b44266a1f9fcb49b894d4611d1254bf1aa313 commit
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-2026-99174 updated cvss 4.1
kernel: ext4: free the sbi after a grace period
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 moreaffected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
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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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt, kernel-rt-selftests-internal Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8not 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
Exploit prediction
0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
Affected products
- Linux Linux
Classification
- Technology feeds
References
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/cf3bd5824c985b350d150bcd76698ee5e993fcba
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/b4b0598fad51a978fcbda9d55eef6b5bd3cbe7d8
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/4ce0e27ea610663a9cdc04e3bca38559147428d4
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/80d5db1686b05fad6f384be017714297d828a714
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/87d29b8b849738d52fe820d495fa0aa2d5a1ec82
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/c17b44266a1f9fcb49b894d4611d1254bf1aa313
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-99174
- NVD CVE-2026-99174
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.