CVE-2026-99051: fsverity: RCU-delay the freeing of struct fsverity_info

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
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: 2026-10-23 · updated 2026-10-24

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fsverity: RCU-delay the freeing of struct fsverity_info __fsverity_get_info() calls rhashtable_lookup_fast(), which just uses rcu_read_lock() and doesn't directly synchronize with fsverity_remove_info(). For the same inode this isn't a problem: its fsverity_info is removed only at inode eviction time or upon failure to enable verity, when the inode no longer needs its fsverity_info and it will no longer be accessed via that inode. However, this is broken and can cause a use-after-free for concurrent __fsverity_get_info() for *different* inodes. Those rely on following fsverity_info::rhash_head in the rhashtable under rcu_read_lock() only. They also use fsverity_info::inode to do the key comparison. Fix this by RCU-delaying the freeing of 'struct fsverity_info' after it's been removed from the rhashtable.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 7.0 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

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

References

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