CVE-2026-46299

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

hfsplus: fix held lock freed on hfsplus_fill_super()

hfsplus_fill_super() calls hfs_find_init() to initialize a search structure, which acquires tree->tree_lock. If the subsequent call to hfsplus_cat_build_key() fails, the function jumps to the out_put_root error label without releasing the lock. The later cleanup path then frees the tree data structure with the lock still held, triggering a held lock freed warning.

Fix this by adding the missing hfs_find_exit(&fd) call before jumping to the out_put_root error label. This ensures that tree->tree_lock is properly released on the error path.

The bug was originally detected on v6.13-rc1 using an experimental static analysis tool we are developing, and we have verified that the issue persists in the latest mainline kernel. The tool is specifically designed to detect memory management issues. It is currently under active development and not yet publicly available.

We confirmed the bug by runtime testing under QEMU with x86_64 defconfig, lockdep enabled, and CONFIG_HFSPLUS_FS=y. To trigger the error path, we used GDB to dynamically shrink the max_unistr_len parameter to 1 before hfsplus_asc2uni() is called. This forces hfsplus_asc2uni() to naturally return -ENAMETOOLONG, which propagates to hfsplus_cat_build_key() and exercises the faulty error path. The following warning was observed during mount:

=========================
WARNING: held lock freed!
7.0.0-rc3-00016-gb4f0dd314b39 #4 Not tainted
-------------------------
mount/174 is freeing memory ffff888103f92000-ffff888103f92fff, with a lock still held there!
ffff888103f920b0 (&tree->tree_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: hfsplus_find_init+0x154/0x1e0
2 locks held by mount/174:
#0: ffff888103f960e0 (&type->s_umount_key#42/1){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: alloc_super.constprop.0+0x167/0xa40
#1: ffff888103f920b0 (&tree->tree_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: hfsplus_find_init+0x154/0x1e0

stack backtrace:
CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 174 Comm: mount Not tainted 7.0.0-rc3-00016-gb4f0dd314b39 #4 PREEMPT(lazy)
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0x82/0xd0
debug_check_no_locks_freed+0x13a/0x180
kfree+0x16b/0x510
? hfsplus_fill_super+0xcb4/0x18a0
hfsplus_fill_super+0xcb4/0x18a0
? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? bdev_open+0x65f/0xc30
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? pointer+0x4ce/0xbf0
? trace_contention_end+0x11c/0x150
? __pfx_pointer+0x10/0x10
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? bdev_open+0x79b/0xc30
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? vsnprintf+0x6da/0x1270
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? __mutex_unlock_slowpath+0x157/0x740
? __pfx_vsnprintf+0x10/0x10
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? mark_held_locks+0x49/0x80
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? irqentry_exit+0x17b/0x5e0
? trace_irq_disable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150
? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10
? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10
get_tree_bdev_flags+0x302/0x580
? __pfx_get_tree_bdev_flags+0x10/0x10
? vfs_parse_fs_qstr+0x129/0x1a0
? __pfx_vfs_parse_fs_qstr+0x3/0x10
vfs_get_tree+0x89/0x320
fc_mount+0x10/0x1d0
path_mount+0x5c5/0x21c0
? __pfx_path_mount+0x10/0x10
? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150
? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? kmem_cache_free+0x307/0x540
? user_path_at+0x51/0x60
? __x64_sys_mount+0x212/0x280
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
__x64_sys_mount+0x212/0x280
? __pfx___x64_sys_mount+0x10/0x10
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150
? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
do_syscall_64+0x111/0x680
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7ffacad55eae
Code: 48 8b 0d 85 1f 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 a5 00 00 8
RSP: 002b

—truncated—

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/041acda6d9f96006703466449c10c9a69590c8b9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3ca80e3012c8be85b4f8d0d20eac8d3b17ff257e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6499c9c8ec437a369e7e221dad91f6122b50759d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90c500e4fd83fa33c09bc7ee23b6d9cc487ac733
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bfbcce6a7b0552a390620d9b2c4d2bcb1825cbdc
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c554ddc87af4d4e4be42f8aed1baec9e1c7588e0
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d309d3308de658d87c42d97e044c89a226327526
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e890656accee4c26d932ea388eb8936a6e22184d