CVE-2026-98543high

CVE-2026-98543: high-severity vulnerability in Linux

bpf: fs/xattr: don't assume the inode is locked in path_unlink/path_rmdir

Published · Updated

21Vexday Risk Score

No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.

ssvc Trackcvss 7.3epss 0.2%
exploitation probability
0.2%top 96% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: fs/xattr: don't assume the inode is locked in path_unlink/path_rmdir bpf_lsm_has_d_inode_locked() makes the verifier rewrite bpf_[set|remove]_dentry_xattr() to the _locked variants, which assume that the caller already holds the inode's i_rwsem. The path_unlink and path_rmdir hooks are listed, but security_path_unlink() and security_path_rmdir() run before vfs_unlink()/vfs_rmdir() take the victim inode's i_rwsem, so a sleepable BPF LSM program attached to either hook mutates the victim's xattrs without the lock held. Drop the two path hooks from d_inode_locked_hooks so that the verifier keeps the locking bpf_[set|remove]_dentry_xattr() variants, which take the lock themselves.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H
Affected products
Linux · Linux