CVE-2026-45924: ksmbd: call ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_end_removing() on some error paths

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-27 · updated 2026-06-24
Weakness: CWE-667

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: call ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_end_removing() on some error paths There are two places where ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_end_removing() needs to be called in order to balance what the corresponding successful call to ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_start_removing() has done, i.e. drop inode locks and put the taken references. Otherwise there might be potential deadlocks and unbalanced locks which are caught like: BUG: workqueue leaked lock or atomic: kworker/5:21/0x00000000/7596 last function: handle_ksmbd_work 2 locks held by kworker/5:21/7596: #0: ffff8881051ae448 (sb_writers#3){.+.+}-{0:0}, at: ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_locked+0x142/0x660 #1: ffff888130e966c0 (&type->i_mutex_dir_key#3/1){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_locked+0x17d/0x660 CPU: 5 PID: 7596 Comm: kworker/5:21 Not tainted 6.1.162-00456-gc29b353f383b #138 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014 Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x44/0x5b process_one_work.cold+0x57/0x5c worker_thread+0x82/0x600 kthread+0x153/0x190 ret_from_fork+0x22/0x30 </TASK> Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org).

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.15.190 before 5.15.203; from 6.1.149 before 6.1.167; from 6.6.103 before 6.6.130; from 6.12.43 before 6.12.78; from 6.15.11 before 6.16; from 6.16.2 before 6.18.17 — fixed in 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.78, 6.16, 6.18.17, 6.19.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.203, 6.1.167, 6.12.78, 6.16. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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