Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs: don't silently unmount busy mounts
The propagate_mount_busy() helper exists to decide whether a synchronous
can suceed. It does that by looking at the copies of the victims in the
mounts its parent propagates to. One of those functions from propagation
hell.
It skips a copy that has child mounts except for the case of a single
child mount covering the copy's root. That algorithm used to be exact.
It isn't anymore.
Originally only childless copies were unmounted during propagation.
And 1064f874abc0 ("mnt: Tuck mounts under others instead of creating
shadow/side mounts.") ended up adding covered mounts to both sides in
one go.
Along came 99b19d16471e ("mnt: In propgate_umount handle visiting mounts
in any order") and that started to unmount more than before:
[1]: A copy of a mount is unmounted when each of its children is either
its overmount or a copy of the victim itself. In the former case
the overmount gets reparented. In the latter case the copy of the
victim will end up being unmounted.
So propagate_umount() ended up being rewritten without adjusting
propagate_mount_busy(). And currently propagate_mount_busy() doesn't
look at copies of the victim that have two or more children nor a single
child that is not the overmount.
So any such copy in [1] is not checked for
references. The result is that a synchronous unmount succeeds, pulling
out a mount that is still in use.
A container can run into this with its own mounts. The host shares a
tree with the container and the host has a mount in that tree:
mount -t tmpfs none /mnt
mount --make-shared /mnt
mount -t tmpfs none /mnt/a
The container's /mnt is a slave copy of the host mount. The container
now takes a detached copy of the tree and mounts that copy beneath its
propagated copy of /mnt/a and keeps the file descriptor to the tree
open:
unshare -m --propagation unchanged
mount --make-rslave /
fd = open_tree(AT_FDCWD, "/mnt", OPEN_TREE_CLONE | AT_RECURSIVE)
move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt/a", MOVE_MOUNT_BENEATH)
grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo
775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646
777 775 ... /mnt/a ... master:646
776 777 ... /mnt/a ... master:647
778 777 ... /mnt/a/a ... master:647
The now attached tree (777) is now mounted beneath the container's copy
of /mnt/a. That's also where the host mount sits (as seen from the host
mount namespace). So the propagated copy (776) of the host's mount is on
top of its root and the copy of that (778) is inside it. Now the host
runs:
umount /mnt/a
and it succeeds. The moved tree tree and the copy inside of it are gone
from the container. Now only the propagated copy is left and it got
reparented to where it was before:
grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo
775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646
776 775 ... /mnt/a ...
But the file descriptor still refers to the moved tree. So a synchronous
umount detached a mount that is still in use.
Teach propagate_mount_busy() the same checks that propagate_umount()
does. It now checks for a single victim mount without children
for which it can assume that MNT_LOCKED is cleared on every copy like
propagate_umount() does. The copies form chains. IOW, when a copy itself
receives propagation from the victim's parent then the mount at the same
mountpoint inside that copy is a copy as well. Whether a mount receives
propagation from the victim's can simply be checked by walking its
masters. Walk each chain once from its top so we are sure that nested
copies stay linear. Check every reference once of every copy that gets
unmounted.
fs: don't silently unmount busy mounts
The propagate_mount_busy() helper exists to decide whether a synchronous
can suceed. It does that by looking at the copies of the victims in the
mounts its parent propagates to. One of those functions from propagation
hell.
It skips a copy that has child mounts except for the case of a single
child mount covering the copy's root. That algorithm used to be exact.
It isn't anymore.
Originally only childless copies were unmounted during propagation.
And 1064f874abc0 ("mnt: Tuck mounts under others instead of creating
shadow/side mounts.") ended up adding covered mounts to both sides in
one go.
Along came 99b19d16471e ("mnt: In propgate_umount handle visiting mounts
in any order") and that started to unmount more than before:
[1]: A copy of a mount is unmounted when each of its children is either
its overmount or a copy of the victim itself. In the former case
the overmount gets reparented. In the latter case the copy of the
victim will end up being unmounted.
So propagate_umount() ended up being rewritten without adjusting
propagate_mount_busy(). And currently propagate_mount_busy() doesn't
look at copies of the victim that have two or more children nor a single
child that is not the overmount.
So any such copy in [1] is not checked for
references. The result is that a synchronous unmount succeeds, pulling
out a mount that is still in use.
A container can run into this with its own mounts. The host shares a
tree with the container and the host has a mount in that tree:
mount -t tmpfs none /mnt
mount --make-shared /mnt
mount -t tmpfs none /mnt/a
The container's /mnt is a slave copy of the host mount. The container
now takes a detached copy of the tree and mounts that copy beneath its
propagated copy of /mnt/a and keeps the file descriptor to the tree
open:
unshare -m --propagation unchanged
mount --make-rslave /
fd = open_tree(AT_FDCWD, "/mnt", OPEN_TREE_CLONE | AT_RECURSIVE)
move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt/a", MOVE_MOUNT_BENEATH)
grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo
775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646
777 775 ... /mnt/a ... master:646
776 777 ... /mnt/a ... master:647
778 777 ... /mnt/a/a ... master:647
The now attached tree (777) is now mounted beneath the container's copy
of /mnt/a. That's also where the host mount sits (as seen from the host
mount namespace). So the propagated copy (776) of the host's mount is on
top of its root and the copy of that (778) is inside it. Now the host
runs:
umount /mnt/a
and it succeeds. The moved tree tree and the copy inside of it are gone
from the container. Now only the propagated copy is left and it got
reparented to where it was before:
grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo
775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646
776 775 ... /mnt/a ...
But the file descriptor still refers to the moved tree. So a synchronous
umount detached a mount that is still in use.
Teach propagate_mount_busy() the same checks that propagate_umount()
does. It now checks for a single victim mount without children
for which it can assume that MNT_LOCKED is cleared on every copy like
propagate_umount() does. The copies form chains. IOW, when a copy itself
receives propagation from the victim's parent then the mount at the same
mountpoint inside that copy is a copy as well. Whether a mount receives
propagation from the victim's can simply be checked by walking its
masters. Walk each chain once from its top so we are sure that nested
copies stay linear. Check every reference once of every copy that gets
unmounted.
Published:
2026-10-23
Score:
n/a
EPSS:
n/a
KEV:
No
Impact:
n/a
Action:
n/a
Analysis
Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
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| Linux | Linux | unaffected |
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| Linux | Linux | affected |
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No data.
No data.
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| Linux | Linux | 100% |
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| Linux | Linux | 100% |
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| Linux | Linux Kernel | 100% |
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| Linux | Linux Kernel | 100% |
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Remediation
No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.
Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Tracking
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Advisories
No advisories yet.
References
History
Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared |
Linux linux
|
|
| Vendors & Products |
Linux linux
|
Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Weaknesses | CWE-276 CWE-400 |
Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs: don't silently unmount busy mounts The propagate_mount_busy() helper exists to decide whether a synchronous can suceed. It does that by looking at the copies of the victims in the mounts its parent propagates to. One of those functions from propagation hell. It skips a copy that has child mounts except for the case of a single child mount covering the copy's root. That algorithm used to be exact. It isn't anymore. Originally only childless copies were unmounted during propagation. And 1064f874abc0 ("mnt: Tuck mounts under others instead of creating shadow/side mounts.") ended up adding covered mounts to both sides in one go. Along came 99b19d16471e ("mnt: In propgate_umount handle visiting mounts in any order") and that started to unmount more than before: [1]: A copy of a mount is unmounted when each of its children is either its overmount or a copy of the victim itself. In the former case the overmount gets reparented. In the latter case the copy of the victim will end up being unmounted. So propagate_umount() ended up being rewritten without adjusting propagate_mount_busy(). And currently propagate_mount_busy() doesn't look at copies of the victim that have two or more children nor a single child that is not the overmount. So any such copy in [1] is not checked for references. The result is that a synchronous unmount succeeds, pulling out a mount that is still in use. A container can run into this with its own mounts. The host shares a tree with the container and the host has a mount in that tree: mount -t tmpfs none /mnt mount --make-shared /mnt mount -t tmpfs none /mnt/a The container's /mnt is a slave copy of the host mount. The container now takes a detached copy of the tree and mounts that copy beneath its propagated copy of /mnt/a and keeps the file descriptor to the tree open: unshare -m --propagation unchanged mount --make-rslave / fd = open_tree(AT_FDCWD, "/mnt", OPEN_TREE_CLONE | AT_RECURSIVE) move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt/a", MOVE_MOUNT_BENEATH) grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo 775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646 777 775 ... /mnt/a ... master:646 776 777 ... /mnt/a ... master:647 778 777 ... /mnt/a/a ... master:647 The now attached tree (777) is now mounted beneath the container's copy of /mnt/a. That's also where the host mount sits (as seen from the host mount namespace). So the propagated copy (776) of the host's mount is on top of its root and the copy of that (778) is inside it. Now the host runs: umount /mnt/a and it succeeds. The moved tree tree and the copy inside of it are gone from the container. Now only the propagated copy is left and it got reparented to where it was before: grep /mnt /proc/self/mountinfo 775 355 ... /mnt ... master:646 776 775 ... /mnt/a ... But the file descriptor still refers to the moved tree. So a synchronous umount detached a mount that is still in use. Teach propagate_mount_busy() the same checks that propagate_umount() does. It now checks for a single victim mount without children for which it can assume that MNT_LOCKED is cleared on every copy like propagate_umount() does. The copies form chains. IOW, when a copy itself receives propagation from the victim's parent then the mount at the same mountpoint inside that copy is a copy as well. Whether a mount receives propagation from the victim's can simply be checked by walking its masters. Walk each chain once from its top so we are sure that nested copies stay linear. Check every reference once of every copy that gets unmounted. | |
| Title | fs: don't silently unmount busy mounts | |
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| References |
|
MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: Linux
Published:
Updated: 2026-10-23T12:20:15.188Z
Reserved: 2026-09-25T10:25:14.384Z
Link: CVE-2026-98996
Vulnrichment
No data.
NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-10-23T13:17:21.770
Modified: 2026-10-23T13:17:21.770
Link: CVE-2026-98996
Redhat
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-10-23T19:30:17Z