Answer in brief
CVE-2026-68096 records a High severity (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in audit: fix recursive locking deadlock in audit_dupe_exe(). The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 7.5. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <36eb77f14b4e6f2dc1008c1fabe31236397be27a || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <7d1f66c69898ffb1a718926c32a777ecc471caca || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <40879c39d6740f3dddfb52b5d6ba7fb8cceb84d8 || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <3b601938314c24fcd1afb6659cad92fe96c9c2f8 || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <81905b5acbe77284734438df3fbec1158e6429a3 | 36eb77f14b4e6f2dc1008c1fabe31236397be27a, 7d1f66c69898ffb1a718926c32a777ecc471caca, 40879c39d6740f3dddfb52b5d6ba7fb8cceb84d8, 3b601938314c24fcd1afb6659cad92fe96c9c2f8, 81905b5acbe77284734438df3fbec1158e6429a3 |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 4.3 | Not reported |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <6114c3f21eb2ae175401736da744b684705e7ed9 || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <f6fda0ac6661c23b8356dfb1cc423960cc6f0593 || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <3bbb4931f7cd84cecf29ec222c0732bf9ad4da9f || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <36eb77f14b4e6f2dc1008c1fabe31236397be27a || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <7d1f66c69898ffb1a718926c32a777ecc471caca || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <40879c39d6740f3dddfb52b5d6ba7fb8cceb84d8 || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <3b601938314c24fcd1afb6659cad92fe96c9c2f8 || >=34d99af52ad40bd498ba66970579a5bc1fb1a3bc <81905b5acbe77284734438df3fbec1158e6429a3 | 6114c3f21eb2ae175401736da744b684705e7ed9, f6fda0ac6661c23b8356dfb1cc423960cc6f0593, 3bbb4931f7cd84cecf29ec222c0732bf9ad4da9f, 36eb77f14b4e6f2dc1008c1fabe31236397be27a, 7d1f66c69898ffb1a718926c32a777ecc471caca, 40879c39d6740f3dddfb52b5d6ba7fb8cceb84d8, 3b601938314c24fcd1afb6659cad92fe96c9c2f8, 81905b5acbe77284734438df3fbec1158e6429a3 |
Published upstream
Aug 10, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Aug 23, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Aug 10, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: audit: fix recursive locking deadlock in audit_dupe_exe() A deadlock occurs in the audit subsystem when duplicating executable-related rules. When a file is moved (e.g., via do_renameat2()), the VFS layer locks the parent directory (I_MUTEX_PARENT), which synchronously triggers an fsnotify_move event. If an existing executable audit rule matches the file being moved, the audit subsystem catches this event and calls audit_dupe_exe() to duplicate the watch and update the rule. Then, audit_alloc_mark() would call kern_path_parent() to resolve the path, leading to a blind attempt to acquire the exact same I_MUTEX_PARENT lock already held by the task, resulting in the following recursive locking deadlock: ============================================ WARNING: possible recursive locking detected 6.12.0-55.27.1.el10_0.x86_64+debug #1 Not tainted -------------------------------------------- mv/5099 is trying to acquire lock: ffff888132845358 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: __kern_path_locked+0x10a/0x2f0 but task is already holding lock: ffff888132846b58 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: lock_two_directories+0x13f/0x2b0 other info that might help us debug this: Possible unsafe locking scenario: CPU0 ---- lock(&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1); lock(&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1); *** DEADLOCK *** May be due to missing lock nesting notation 6 locks held by mv/5099: #0: ffff888112a9c440 (sb_writers#13) at: do_renameat2+0x34c/0xbc0 #1: ffff888112a9c790 (&type->s_vfs_rename_key#3) at: do_renameat2+0x415/0xbc0 #2: ffff888132846b58 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1) at: lock_two_directories+0x13f/0x2b0 #3: ffff888132845358 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/5) at: lock_two_directories+0x175/0x2b0 #4: ffffffffb3a1fb10 (&fsnotify_mark_srcu) at: fsnotify+0x454/0x28a0 #5: ffffffffaf886230 (audit_filter_mutex) at: audit_update_watch+0x36/0x11e0 stack backtrace: Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x6f/0xb0 print_deadlock_bug.cold+0xbd/0xca validate_chain+0x83a/0xf00 __lock_acquire+0xcac/0x1d20 lock_acquire.part.0+0x11b/0x360 down_write_nested+0x9f/0x230 __kern_path_locked+0x10a/0x2f0 kern_path_locked+0x26/0x40 audit_alloc_mark+0xfb/0x4f0 audit_dupe_exe+0x6c/0xe0 audit_dupe_rule+0x6c2/0xc00 audit_update_watch+0x4cc/0x11e0 audit_watch_handle_event+0x12c/0x1b0 send_to_group+0x5d0/0x8b0 fsnotify+0x615/0x28a0 fsnotify_move+0x1d8/0x630 vfs_rename+0xdcd/0x1df0 do_renameat2+0x9d4/0xbc0 __x64_sys_renameat+0x192/0x260 do_syscall_64+0x92/0x180 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e RIP: 0033:0x7f0491fe8c4e Code: 0f 1f 40 00 48 8b 15 c1 e1 16 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 08 01 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 0a c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 15 89 RSP: 002b:00007ffc7210bf38 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000108 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f0491fe8c4e RDX: 0000000000000003 RSI: 00007ffc7210e6c8 RDI: 00000000ffffff9c RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000001 R10: 00005575eb2dae2a R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575eb2dae2a R13: 00007ffc7210e6c8 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 00000000ffffff9c </TASK> The aforementioned deadlock can be consistently reproduced by running the script below: audit-dupe-exe-deadlock.sh -------------------------- #!/bin/bash auditctl -D mkdir -p /tmp/foo touch /tmp/file auditctl -a always,exit -F exe=/tmp/file -F path=/tmp/file -S all -k dr mv /tmp/file /tmp/foo/file rm -Rf /tmp/foo This patch fixes the issue by introducing struct audit_watch_ctx to pass the fsnotify event context down to audit_alloc_mark(). By utilizing the already-resolved directory inode provided by the event, we bypass the kern_path_parent() path resol ---truncated---
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.