# CVE-2026-89767: linux: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ovl: fix double end_creating() on the casefold-m... CVE-2026-89767 is fixed in 20 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89767, released September 23, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High. - Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-89767 - Priority: High - CVSS: 7.8 (high) - EPSS: 0.0017 - CISA KEV: not listed - Exploited (vendor report): no - Publicly disclosed: no - Published: Sep 11, 2026 ## Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ovl: fix double end_creating() on the casefold-mismatch path ovl_create_real() releases the new dentry twice when the casefold consistency check fails. The S_IFDIR branch calls end_creating() and sets err, then falls through to the common out: label which calls end_creating() on the same dentry again: case S_IFDIR: newdentry = ovl_do_mkdir(ofs, dir, newdentry, attr->mode); err = PTR_ERR_OR_ZERO(newdentry); if (!err && ofs->casefold != ovl_dentry_casefolded(newdentry)) { pr_warn_ratelimited(...); end_creating(newdentry); /* first */ err = -EINVAL; } break; ... if (err) goto out; ... out: if (err) { end_creating(newdentry); /* second, same dentry */ return ERR_PTR(err); } end_creating() is end_dirop(), which does inode_unlock() on the parent and dput() on the dentry, so the parent directory's i_rwsem is unlocked twice and the dentry is put twice. The second unlock releases a lock that is not held, which is what wedges every later creation under that parent, and the second dput() drops a reference that was never taken. The branch was added by commit dfc7da402ccc ("ovl: Check for casefold consistency when creating new dentries") as a bare dput(), which already released the reference twice; commit fe497f0759e0 ("VFS: change vfs_mkdir() to unlock on failure.") converted both sites to end_creating(), adding the double unlock. This is reachable by an unprivileged user. The casefold consistency of the layers is validated at mount time in ovl_parse_layer(), and again on every lookup in ovl_lookup_single(), but ofs->workdir is the internal "work" subdirectory created inside the user-supplied workdir, and that subdirectory is not re-checked. Marking it casefolded after the mount therefore makes every ovl_create_temp() inherit the wrong state - and that path reaches ovl_create_real() through ovl_start_creating_temp(), which uses start_creating() with a generated name and so never runs the lookup-time check. unshare -Urm mount -t tmpfs -o casefold=utf8-12.1.0 tmpfs mnt mkdir -p mnt/lower/d mnt/upper mnt/work mnt/merged mount -t overlay ovl -o lowerdir=mnt/lower,\ upperdir=mnt/upper,workdir=mnt/work mnt/merged chattr +F mnt/work/work mkdir mnt/merged/d/sub # directory copy-up overlayfs: wrong inherited casefold (work/#5) and the next copy-up blocks forever on the parent's i_rwsem: mkdir D start_creating+0x65/0xb0 ovl_start_creating_temp+0xb0/0xe0 [overlay] ovl_create_temp+0xa3/0x1d0 [overlay] ovl_copy_up_one+0x1f1c/0x21c0 [overlay] ovl_copy_up_flags+0xf5/0x140 [overlay] ovl_create_object+0xb7/0x220 [overlay] ovl_mkdir+0x23/0x40 [overlay] Drop the end_creating() from the branch and let out: own the cleanup, which is what every other error path in this function already does. ## Where it's fixed | Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released | |---|---|---|---|---| | Linux | bpftool6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | bpftool6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-livepatch-6.18.51-120.162 amzn 2023 | 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-aarch64 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-debuginfo-common-x86_64 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-headers amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-modules-extra amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-modules-extra-common amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel6.18-tools-devel amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | linux Debian 14 | 7.2.6-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89767](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-89767.md) | Sep 23, 2026 | | Linux | microvm-kernel6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | perf6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | perf6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | python3-perf6.18 amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | python3-perf6.18-debuginfo amzn 2023 | 1:6.18.51-120.162.amzn2023 | [ALAS2023-2026-3187](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/alas2023-2026-3187.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | --- Data as of 2026-11-08T13:06:02Z UTC. 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