CVE-2026-98539

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

fs/ntfs3: use d_instantiate_new() in ntfs_create_inode() and murder syzbots WARNING in do_new_mount saga

ntfs_create_inode() creates a new inode via ntfs_new_inode(). It hashes it with insert_inode_locked() and so its marked as I_NEW until unlock_new_inode().

ntfs 3 calls d_instantiate() in between though… Since the dentry was already hashed by the lookup before the create any path walk finds it without touching the parents i_rwsem and so can lock the inode.

If the inode is a directory unlock_new_inode() calls lockdep_annotate_inode_mutex_key() and marks i_rwsem with the i_mutex_dir_key class.

That resets the count and the owner of a lock somebody else may already hold by now…

syzbot has been spamming us with the same godforsaken bug

WARNING in do_new_mount

since 2023. I cant take it anymore so I went looking. Afaict, syzbots executor chdirs into a freshly mounted ntfs3 image, creates a directory and then mounts some pseudofs on it. Everytime the mkdir() takes longer than syzbot waits mount() runs concurrently:

mkdir(./sys) mount(NULL, ./sys, sysfs) ntfs_create_inode() d_instantiate() user_path_at() finds the dentry do_lock_mount() inode_lock(inode) namespace_lock() unlock_new_inode() lockdep_annotate_inode_mutex_key() init_rwsem(&inode->i_rwsem) unlock_mount() inode_unlock(inode)

The mount side then releases a lock that according to the rwsem nobody holds:

DEBUG_RWSEMS_WARN_ON((rwsem_owner(sem) != current) && …): count = 0x0, magic = 0xffff888043a854e8, owner = 0x0, curr 0xffff888000244880, list empty WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 5346 at kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1368 __up_write Call Trace: inode_unlock include/linux/fs.h:877 [inline] unlock_mount fs/namespace.c:2892 [inline] do_new_mount_fc fs/namespace.c:3828 [inline] do_new_mount+0x777/0xa40 fs/namespace.c:3887

On PREEMPT_RT the same thing shows up as

DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(rt_mutex_owner(lock) != current) WARNING: kernel/locking/rtmutex_common.h:193 at rt_mutex_slowunlock

The up_write() underflows the reset count. A following inode_lock() on that directory then never returns. A path walk into the new directory racing with the mkdir() corrupts the lock the same way via inode_lock_shared() in lookup_slow().

Switch to d_instantiate_new() and drop the trailing unlock_new_inode(). All error paths bail out before that point with I_NEW still set and keep using discard_new_inode().

May we never see this fscking bug report again.

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1abd643f3783ea8f8e273c18697ff0413aa92dc7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1ae2a242c15b03470b1b16289298e597bbe3bb29
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/37ec7353f4ac495b28284b0fcb0e53d21d1b3f3f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6fda7121cb6a8ea6fbd77d0f787f04b8e8b5358e