CVE-2026-53244
HighCVSS 7.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk28th percentile — higher than 28% of all known CVEs
Summary
In the Linux kernel, a vulnerability in nfsd4_create_file() can cause a failure to unlock the parent directory when dentry_create() returns an error pointer. This occurs when an exported filesystem uses atomic_create() and that operation fails.
Risk Assessment
The organization may face a deadlock on the parent directory, blocking further file operations on the NFS-exported filesystem and leading to a denial of service (DoS).
Recommendation
Immediately update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix (commit that ensures dentry_create() always returns a valid dentry).
Original NVD description (English source)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: VFS: fix possible failure to unlock in nfsd4_create_file() atomic_create() in fs/namei.c drops the reference to the dentry when it returns an error. This behaviour was imported into dentry_create() so that it will drop the reference if an error is returned from atomic_create(), though not if vfs_create() returns an error (in the case where ->atomic_create is not supported). The caller - nfsd4_create_file() - is made aware of this by checking path->dentry, which will either be a counted reference to a dentry, or an error pointer. However the change to use start_creating()/end_creating() (which landed shortly before the dentry_create() change landed, though was likely developed around the same time) means that nfsd4_create_file() *needs* a valid dentry so that it can unlock the parent. The net result is that if NFSD exports a filesystem which uses ->atomic_create, and if a call to ->atomic_create returns an error, then nfsd4_create_file() will pass an error pointer to end_creating() and the parent will not be unlocked. Fix this by changing dentry_create() to make sure path->dentry is always a valid dentry, never an error-pointer. The actual error is already returned a different way. Note that if ->atomic_create() returns a different dentry (which may not be possible in practice) we are guaranteed (because it is only ever provided by d_spliace_alias()) that it will have the same d_parent and so it will have the same effect when passed to end_creating().