CVE-2026-43420

Published May 8, 2026

Last updated 17 days ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix i_nlink underrun during async unlink During async unlink, we drop the `i_nlink` counter before we receive the completion (that will eventually update the `i_nlink`) because "we assume that the unlink will succeed". That is not a bad idea, but it races against deletions by other clients (or against the completion of our own unlink) and can lead to an underrun which emits a WARNING like this one: WARNING: CPU: 85 PID: 25093 at fs/inode.c:407 drop_nlink+0x50/0x68 Modules linked in: CPU: 85 UID: 3221252029 PID: 25093 Comm: php-cgi8.1 Not tainted 6.14.11-cm4all1-ampere #655 Hardware name: Supermicro ARS-110M-NR/R12SPD-A, BIOS 1.1b 10/17/2023 pstate: 60400009 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : drop_nlink+0x50/0x68 lr : ceph_unlink+0x6c4/0x720 sp : ffff80012173bc90 x29: ffff80012173bc90 x28: ffff086d0a45aaf8 x27: ffff0871d0eb5680 x26: ffff087f2a64a718 x25: 0000020000000180 x24: 0000000061c88647 x23: 0000000000000002 x22: ffff07ff9236d800 x21: 0000000000001203 x20: ffff07ff9237b000 x19: ffff088b8296afc0 x18: 00000000f3c93365 x17: 0000000000070000 x16: ffff08faffcbdfe8 x15: ffff08faffcbdfec x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 45445f65645f3037 x12: 34385f6369706f74 x11: 0000a2653104bb20 x10: ffffd85f26d73290 x9 : ffffd85f25664f94 x8 : 00000000000000c0 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000002 x5 : 0000000000000081 x4 : 0000000000000481 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff08727d3f91e8 Call trace: drop_nlink+0x50/0x68 (P) vfs_unlink+0xb0/0x2e8 do_unlinkat+0x204/0x288 __arm64_sys_unlinkat+0x3c/0x80 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0x54/0xe8 do_el0_svc+0xa4/0xc8 el0_svc+0x18/0x58 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x104/0x130 el0t_64_sync+0x154/0x158 In ceph_unlink(), a call to ceph_mdsc_submit_request() submits the CEPH_MDS_OP_UNLINK to the MDS, but does not wait for completion. Meanwhile, between this call and the following drop_nlink() call, a worker thread may process a CEPH_CAP_OP_IMPORT, CEPH_CAP_OP_GRANT or just a CEPH_MSG_CLIENT_REPLY (the latter of which could be our own completion). These will lead to a set_nlink() call, updating the `i_nlink` counter to the value received from the MDS. If that new `i_nlink` value happens to be zero, it is illegal to decrement it further. But that is exactly what ceph_unlink() will do then. The WARNING can be reproduced this way: 1. Force async unlink; only the async code path is affected. Having no real clue about Ceph internals, I was unable to find out why the MDS wouldn't give me the "Fxr" capabilities, so I patched get_caps_for_async_unlink() to always succeed. (Note that the WARNING dump above was found on an unpatched kernel, without this kludge - this is not a theoretical bug.) 2. Add a sleep call after ceph_mdsc_submit_request() so the unlink completion gets handled by a worker thread before drop_nlink() is called. This guarantees that the `i_nlink` is already zero before drop_nlink() runs. The solution is to skip the counter decrement when it is already zero, but doing so without a lock is still racy (TOCTOU). Since ceph_fill_inode() and handle_cap_grant() both hold the `ceph_inode_info.i_ceph_lock` spinlock while set_nlink() runs, this seems like the proper lock to protect the `i_nlink` updates. I found prior art in NFS and SMB (using `inode.i_lock`) and AFS (using `afs_vnode.cb_lock`). All three have the zero check as well.
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
4.7
Impact score
3.6
Exploitability score
1
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Severity
MEDIUM

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-367

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: storvsc: Fix scheduling while atomic on PREEMPT_RT This resolves the follow splat and lock-up when running with PREEMPT_RT enabled on Hyper-V: [ 415.140818] BUG: scheduling while atomic: stress-ng-iomix/1048/0x00000002 [ 415.140822] INFO: lockdep is turned off. [ 415.140823] Modules linked in: intel_rapl_msr intel_rapl_common intel_uncore_frequency_common intel_pmc_core pmt_telemetry pmt_discovery pmt_class intel_pmc_ssram_telemetry intel_vsec ghash_clmulni_intel aesni_intel rapl binfmt_misc nls_ascii nls_cp437 vfat fat snd_pcm hyperv_drm snd_timer drm_client_lib drm_shmem_helper snd sg soundcore drm_kms_helper pcspkr hv_balloon hv_utils evdev joydev drm configfs efi_pstore nfnetlink vsock_loopback vmw_vsock_virtio_transport_common hv_sock vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vsock vmw_vmci efivarfs autofs4 ext4 crc16 mbcache jbd2 sr_mod sd_mod cdrom hv_storvsc serio_raw hid_generic scsi_transport_fc hid_hyperv scsi_mod hid hv_netvsc hyperv_keyboard scsi_common [ 415.140846] Preemption disabled at: [ 415.140847] [<ffffffffc0656171>] storvsc_queuecommand+0x2e1/0xbe0 [hv_storvsc] [ 415.140854] CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 1048 Comm: stress-ng-iomix Not tainted 6.19.0-rc7 #30 PREEMPT_{RT,(full)} [ 415.140856] Hardware name: Microsoft Corporation Virtual Machine/Virtual Machine, BIOS Hyper-V UEFI Release v4.1 09/04/2024 [ 415.140857] Call Trace: [ 415.140861] <TASK> [ 415.140861] ? storvsc_queuecommand+0x2e1/0xbe0 [hv_storvsc] [ 415.140863] dump_stack_lvl+0x91/0xb0 [ 415.140870] __schedule_bug+0x9c/0xc0 [ 415.140875] __schedule+0xdf6/0x1300 [ 415.140877] ? rtlock_slowlock_locked+0x56c/0x1980 [ 415.140879] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.140883] schedule_rtlock+0x21/0x40 [ 415.140885] rtlock_slowlock_locked+0x502/0x1980 [ 415.140891] rt_spin_lock+0x89/0x1e0 [ 415.140893] hv_ringbuffer_write+0x87/0x2a0 [ 415.140899] vmbus_sendpacket_mpb_desc+0xb6/0xe0 [ 415.140900] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.140902] storvsc_queuecommand+0x669/0xbe0 [hv_storvsc] [ 415.140904] ? HARDIRQ_verbose+0x10/0x10 [ 415.140908] ? __rq_qos_issue+0x28/0x40 [ 415.140911] scsi_queue_rq+0x760/0xd80 [scsi_mod] [ 415.140926] __blk_mq_issue_directly+0x4a/0xc0 [ 415.140928] blk_mq_issue_direct+0x87/0x2b0 [ 415.140931] blk_mq_dispatch_queue_requests+0x120/0x440 [ 415.140933] blk_mq_flush_plug_list+0x7a/0x1a0 [ 415.140935] __blk_flush_plug+0xf4/0x150 [ 415.140940] __submit_bio+0x2b2/0x5c0 [ 415.140944] ? submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0x272/0x360 [ 415.140946] submit_bio_noacct_nocheck+0x272/0x360 [ 415.140951] ext4_read_bh_lock+0x3e/0x60 [ext4] [ 415.140995] ext4_block_write_begin+0x396/0x650 [ext4] [ 415.141018] ? __pfx_ext4_da_get_block_prep+0x10/0x10 [ext4] [ 415.141038] ext4_da_write_begin+0x1c4/0x350 [ext4] [ 415.141060] generic_perform_write+0x14e/0x2c0 [ 415.141065] ext4_buffered_write_iter+0x6b/0x120 [ext4] [ 415.141083] vfs_write+0x2ca/0x570 [ 415.141087] ksys_write+0x76/0xf0 [ 415.141089] do_syscall_64+0x99/0x1490 [ 415.141093] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.141095] ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0xdf/0x3d0 [ 415.141097] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.141098] ? lock_release+0x1f0/0x2a0 [ 415.141100] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.141101] ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0xe4/0x3d0 [ 415.141103] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.141104] ? __schedule+0xb34/0x1300 [ 415.141106] ? hrtimer_try_to_cancel+0x1d/0x170 [ 415.141109] ? do_nanosleep+0x8b/0x160 [ 415.141111] ? hrtimer_nanosleep+0x89/0x100 [ 415.141114] ? __pfx_hrtimer_wakeup+0x10/0x10 [ 415.141116] ? xfd_validate_state+0x26/0x90 [ 415.141118] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.141120] ? do_syscall_64+0x1e0/0x1490 [ 415.141121] ? do_syscall_64+0x1e0/0x1490 [ 415.141123] ? rcu_is_watching+0x12/0x60 [ 415.141124] ? do_syscall_64+0x1e0/0x1490 [ 415.141125] ? do_syscall_64+0x1e0/0x1490 [ 415.141127] ? irqentry_exit+0x140/0 ---truncated---CVE-2026-43475