CVE-2026-64426 PUBLISHED

io_uring/nop: fix file reference leak with IOSQE_FIXED_FILE

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 19.07.2026 Published: 25.07.2026 Updated: 25.07.2026

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

io_uring/nop: fix file reference leak with IOSQE_FIXED_FILE

NOP file-acquisition support choses between a fixed (registered) file and a normal fget()'d file based on its own IORING_NOP_FIXED_FILE flag in sqe->nop_flags. However, a request's REQ_F_FIXED_FILE is set independently from the generic IOSQE_FIXED_FILE sqe flag during request init, before the issue handler runs.

If a NOP is submitted with IOSQE_FIXED_FILE set (so REQ_F_FIXED_FILE is set) but without IORING_NOP_FIXED_FILE, io_nop() takes the normal path and grabs a real reference via io_file_get_normal(). On completion, io_put_file() only drops the reference when REQ_F_FIXED_FILE is clear, so the fget()'d file is never released and leaks:

BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff88800f42c240 (size 176): kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x358/0x440 alloc_empty_file+0x57/0x180 path_openat+0x44/0x1e50 do_file_open+0x121/0x200 do_sys_openat2+0xa7/0x150 __x64_sys_openat+0x82/0xf0

Decide between fixed and normal file acquisition from REQ_F_FIXED_FILE, the same way io_assign_file() does for every other opcode, and fold IORING_NOP_FIXED_FILE into REQ_F_FIXED_FILE at prep time.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from a85f31052bce52111b4e9d5a536003481d0421d0 to 722869fcff598fad20d5ab79c305897a7534708b (excl.)
  • affected from a85f31052bce52111b4e9d5a536003481d0421d0 to 7267717f35787167fcce4bc14f6ef3fa06682dcf (excl.)
  • affected from a85f31052bce52111b4e9d5a536003481d0421d0 to 2564ca2e31bd8ee8348362941af2ee4671e487ca (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.13 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.13 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.39 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.4 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2-rc1 to * (incl.)

References