news.mlab.sh
Vulnerabilities
Vulnerability

CVE-2026-46040

Reference data from vuln.mlab.sh, coverage from our own index.

CVSS
5.5 Medium
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Risk score
44.0
Published
2026-05-27
Status
Published

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: inotify: fix watch count leak when fsnotify_add_inode_mark_locked() fails When fsnotify_add_inode_mark_locked() fails in inotify_new_watch(), the error path calls inotify_remove_from_idr() but does not call dec_inotify_watches() to undo the preceding inc_inotify_watches(). This leaks a watch count, and repeated failures can exhaust the max_user_watches limit with -ENOSPC even when no watches are active. Prior to commit 1cce1eea0aff ("inotify: Convert to using per-namespace limits"), the watch count was incremented after fsnotify_add_mark_locked() succeeded, so this path was not affected. The conversion moved inc_inotify_watches() before the mark insertion without adding the corresponding rollback. Add the missing dec_inotify_watches() call in the error path. A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's inotify subsystem. When the fsnotify_add_inode_mark_locked() function fails during the creation of a new watch, the system does not properly decrement the watch count. This oversight can lead to a watch count leak, where repeated failures exhaust the maximum user watches limit. Consequently, a local attacker could trigger this condition, preventing new inotify watches from being created and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).

Weaknesses

CWE-911

Coverage 7

Advisories and references