What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-98553: autofs: fix sbi->pipe file reference leak in autofs_kill_sb()

• Severity: unknown
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-10-18 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: autofs: fix sbi->pipe file reference leak in autofs_kill_sb() When autofs_fill_super() fails before clearing AUTOFS_SBI_CATATONIC (for example, when find_get_pid() fails on an invalid pgrp mount option, or when an fs_context is closed before mounting), deactivate_locked_super() invokes autofs_kill_sb() -> autofs_catatonic_mode(sbi). Because AUTOFS_SBI_CATATONIC is still set in sbi->flags, autofs_catatonic_mode() returns early without calling fput(sbi->pipe), permanently leaking the pipe struct file reference. Explicitly release sbi->pipe in autofs_kill_sb() if it is still non-NULL after autofs_catatonic_mode().

Affected products

• Linux kernel: 4.18 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0662b1ff9b383d5a233d344e4dc518c27a17f7b8
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/34fa4c1c6e10507dc60e35a82cc9655666946cfd
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3684e2273ba94553af3c5195a46a50214a1a96e3
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4bcb371019097d0e357f097902587401c509bbc9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a58593b501b7be5ad2bc5181bfa8cd4599be257c
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/aa5e44b29ffe4eaa08cc2237fd65bc2596bc023e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f1c57f5b16bbc3571bd479c290996c4d4e1fb931
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fc4fd0281ac80b5a3c5a2330f688f0f9d2a420b6

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