kernfs: fix xattr race condition with multiple superblocks
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kernfs: fix xattr race condition with multiple superblocks Multiple superblocks with different namespaces can share the same kernfs_node when kernfs_test_super() finds a matching root but different namespace. This means multiple inodes from different superblocks can reference the same kernfs_node->iattr->xattrs structure. The VFS layer only holds per-inode locks during xattr operations, which is insufficient to serialize concurrent xattr modifications on the shared kernfs_node. This can lead to race conditions in simple_xattr_set() where the lookup->replace/remove sequence is not atomic with respect to operations from other superblocks. Fix this by protecting xattr operations with the existing hashed kernfs_locks->open_file_mutex[] array, which is already used to protect per-node open file data. The hashed mutex array provides scalable per-node serialization (scaled by CPU count, up to 1024 locks on 32+ CPU systems) with zero memory overhead. Changes: - Rename open_file_mutex[] to node_mutex[] to reflect dual purpose - Add kernfs_node_lock_ptr() and kernfs_node_lock() helpers - Protect simple_xattr_set() calls in kernfs_xattr_set() and kernfs_vfs_user_xattr_set() with the hashed mutex - Update file.c to use new helpers via compatibility wrappers - Update documentation to explain the extended lock usage
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 7.1.5, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-74343
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-rxfr-7h9v-g4vx
References
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Sources
- CVE-2026-74343 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-74343 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-rxfr-7h9v-g4vx · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-74343 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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