CVE-2026-89643

audit: avoid dropping live tree ref on fsnotify rule autoremove

CRITICAL
9.8
CVSS Score
Published: September 11, 2026 at 07:45 PM UTC
Updated: October 19, 2026 at 09:18 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
CRITICAL9.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.7%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: audit: avoid dropping live tree ref on fsnotify rule autoremove audit_del_rule() is used for both netlink deletion templates and internal fsnotify autoremove. The former passes a parsed template which owns a temporary tree reference; the latter passes the installed entry itself. The unconditional audit_put_tree() at the end of audit_del_rule() assumes the template case. For mixed AUDIT_DIR plus AUDIT_EXE rules, an fsnotify autoremove event therefore drops the installed rule's live tree reference. Repeating this across rules sharing the same tree can free the tree while another rule still references it, and a later autoremove dereferences the freed pathname while comparing rules. Move the temporary-tree put to audit_rule_change(), the caller that owns deletion templates. Keep it in the AUDIT_DEL_RULE cleanup so both successful deletion and -ENOENT still release the parser-owned tree. [PM: dropped unnecessary comment for line length reasons]

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc4.3
Vendor states this is fixed in 01b0ec8c397be65ff710777c97017ca1de56ef8e (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 583cf579b32d99e3fe4e9c8ecc4d852e3708fbec (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 636a99bab36ba27515363d325866c0273ac83b3e (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 695c85dc345a4e0292739f004c261bedef3f27e6 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 783f0f0974c156aca630f4ffff248671082a098d (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 9cac21f8eb82675ed19fb955b8bbb9dd14cc3d58 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in b322cc7adcd2e6ec1594d187533a126506ab545c (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in cf37b61b5420fd4600fe78cf8c24da6e4d9bfe28 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.270 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.15.221 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.1.188 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.12.109 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.18.50 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.6.157 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.2.4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 7.3-rc1 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

9.8CRITICALLinux
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusRECEIVED

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