CVE-2026-46299

CVE-2026-46299 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel with a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.0. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-667.

Key facts

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: fix held lock freed on hfsplus_fill_super() hfsplus_fill_super() calls hfs_find_init() to initialize a search structure, which acquires tree->tree_lock. If the subsequent call to hfsplus_cat_build_key() fails, the function jumps to the out_put_root error label without releasing the lock. The later cleanup path then frees the tree data structure with the lock still held, triggering a held lock freed warning. Fix this by adding the missing hfs_find_exit(&fd) call before jumping to the out_put_root error label. This ensures that tree->tree_lock is properly released on the error path. The bug was originally detected on v6.13-rc1 using an experimental static analysis tool we are developing, and we have verified that the issue persists in the latest mainline kernel. The tool is specifically designed to detect memory management issues. It is currently under active development and not yet publicly available. We confirmed the bug by runtime testing under QEMU with x86_64 defconfig, lockdep enabled, and CONFIG_HFSPLUS_FS=y. To trigger the error path, we used GDB to dynamically shrink the max_unistr_len parameter to 1 before hfsplus_asc2uni() is called. This forces hfsplus_asc2uni() to naturally return -ENAMETOOLONG, which propagates to hfsplus_cat_build_key() and exercises the faulty error path. The following warning was observed during mount: ========================= WARNING: held lock freed! 7.0.0-rc3-00016-gb4f0dd314b39 #4 Not tainted ------------------------- mount/174 is freeing memory ffff888103f92000-ffff888103f92fff, with a lock still held there! ffff888103f920b0 (&tree->tree_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: hfsplus_find_init+0x154/0x1e0 2 locks held by mount/174: #0: ffff888103f960e0 (&type->s_umount_key#42/1){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: alloc_super.constprop.0+0x167/0xa40 #1: ffff888103f920b0 (&tree->tree_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: hfsplus_find_init+0x154/0x1e0 stack backtrace: CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 174 Comm: mount Not tainted 7.0.0-rc3-00016-gb4f0dd314b39 #4 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x82/0xd0 debug_check_no_locks_freed+0x13a/0x180 kfree+0x16b/0x510 ? hfsplus_fill_super+0xcb4/0x18a0 hfsplus_fill_super+0xcb4/0x18a0 ? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? bdev_open+0x65f/0xc30 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? pointer+0x4ce/0xbf0 ? trace_contention_end+0x11c/0x150 ? __pfx_pointer+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? bdev_open+0x79b/0xc30 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? vsnprintf+0x6da/0x1270 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? __mutex_unlock_slowpath+0x157/0x740 ? __pfx_vsnprintf+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? mark_held_locks+0x49/0x80 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? irqentry_exit+0x17b/0x5e0 ? trace_irq_disable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10 get_tree_bdev_flags+0x302/0x580 ? __pfx_get_tree_bdev_flags+0x10/0x10 ? vfs_parse_fs_qstr+0x129/0x1a0 ? __pfx_vfs_parse_fs_qstr+0x3/0x10 vfs_get_tree+0x89/0x320 fc_mount+0x10/0x1d0 path_mount+0x5c5/0x21c0 ? __pfx_path_mount+0x10/0x10 ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? kmem_cache_free+0x307/0x540 ? user_path_at+0x51/0x60 ? __x64_sys_mount+0x212/0x280 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f __x64_sys_mount+0x212/0x280 ? __pfx___x64_sys_mount+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f do_syscall_64+0x111/0x680 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7ffacad55eae Code: 48 8b 0d 85 1f 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 a5 00 00 8 RSP: 002b ---truncated---

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-46299?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hfsplus: fix held lock freed on hfsplus_fill_super() hfsplus_fill_super() calls hfs_find_init() to initialize a search structure, which acquires tree->tree_lock. If the subsequent call to hfsplus_cat_build_key() fails, the function jumps to the out_put_root error label without releasing the lock. The later cleanup path then frees the tree data structure with the lock still held, triggering a held lock freed warning. Fix this by adding the missing hfs_find_exit(&fd) call before jumping to the out_put_root error label. This ensures that tree->tree_lock is properly released on the error path. The bug was originally detected on v6.13-rc1 using an experimental static analysis tool we are developing, and we have verified that the issue persists in the latest mainline kernel. The tool is specifically designed to detect memory management issues. It is currently under active development and not yet publicly available. We confirmed the bug by runtime testing under QEMU with x86_64 defconfig, lockdep enabled, and CONFIG_HFSPLUS_FS=y. To trigger the error path, we used GDB to dynamically shrink the max_unistr_len parameter to 1 before hfsplus_asc2uni() is called. This forces hfsplus_asc2uni() to naturally return -ENAMETOOLONG, which propagates to hfsplus_cat_build_key() and exercises the faulty error path. The following warning was observed during mount: ========================= WARNING: held lock freed! 7.0.0-rc3-00016-gb4f0dd314b39 #4 Not tainted ------------------------- mount/174 is freeing memory ffff888103f92000-ffff888103f92fff, with a lock still held there! ffff888103f920b0 (&tree->tree_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: hfsplus_find_init+0x154/0x1e0 2 locks held by mount/174: #0: ffff888103f960e0 (&type->s_umount_key#42/1){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: alloc_super.constprop.0+0x167/0xa40 #1: ffff888103f920b0 (&tree->tree_lock){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: hfsplus_find_init+0x154/0x1e0 stack backtrace: CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 174 Comm: mount Not tainted 7.0.0-rc3-00016-gb4f0dd314b39 #4 PREEMPT(lazy) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x82/0xd0 debug_check_no_locks_freed+0x13a/0x180 kfree+0x16b/0x510 ? hfsplus_fill_super+0xcb4/0x18a0 hfsplus_fill_super+0xcb4/0x18a0 ? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? bdev_open+0x65f/0xc30 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? pointer+0x4ce/0xbf0 ? trace_contention_end+0x11c/0x150 ? __pfx_pointer+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? bdev_open+0x79b/0xc30 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? vsnprintf+0x6da/0x1270 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? __mutex_unlock_slowpath+0x157/0x740 ? __pfx_vsnprintf+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? mark_held_locks+0x49/0x80 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? irqentry_exit+0x17b/0x5e0 ? trace_irq_disable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_hfsplus_fill_super+0x10/0x10 get_tree_bdev_flags+0x302/0x580 ? __pfx_get_tree_bdev_flags+0x10/0x10 ? vfs_parse_fs_qstr+0x129/0x1a0 ? __pfx_vfs_parse_fs_qstr+0x3/0x10 vfs_get_tree+0x89/0x320 fc_mount+0x10/0x1d0 path_mount+0x5c5/0x21c0 ? __pfx_path_mount+0x10/0x10 ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? kmem_cache_free+0x307/0x540 ? user_path_at+0x51/0x60 ? __x64_sys_mount+0x212/0x280 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f __x64_sys_mount+0x212/0x280 ? __pfx___x64_sys_mount+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? trace_irq_enable.constprop.0+0x116/0x150 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f do_syscall_64+0x111/0x680 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7ffacad55eae Code: 48 8b 0d 85 1f 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 a5 00 00 8 RSP: 002b ---truncated---
How severe is CVE-2026-46299?
CVE-2026-46299 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 7.0, rated high severity. It is exploitable over local access with high attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2026-46299 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (2nd percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2026-46299?
CVE-2026-46299 affects Linux Linux Kernel. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2026-46299?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its high severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
Does CVE-2026-46299 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
Yes. CVE-2026-46299 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-35165.
When was CVE-2026-46299 published?
CVE-2026-46299 was published on 2026-06-08 and last updated on 2026-07-08.

References

Affected products (1)

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