CVE-2026-97556 PUBLISHED

smb: client: avoid leaking refcount when cifs_sb_tlink() fails

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 24.09.2026 Published: 25.09.2026 Updated: 25.09.2026

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

smb: client: avoid leaking refcount when cifs_sb_tlink() fails

cifs_oplock_break() takes over the reference that cifs_queue_oplock_break() acquired when it queued the work, and drops it with _cifsFileInfo_put() once the break has been processed.

Only in setups with "-o multiuser", cifs_sb_tlink() may fail, at which point cifs_oplock_break() returns without putting the file reference, mirroring the reference leak we already fixed in the companion patch to cifs_queue_oplock_break().

This would trigger a crash due to busy inodes on the next unmount:

BUG: Dentry ... still in use (1) [unmount of cifs cifs] VFS: Busy inodes after unmount of cifs (cifs)

Drop the reference on that path as well. Doing so before the out label mirrors the normal path, which also puts the reference before cifs_done_oplock_break().

Found by Sashiko code review. The failure path was not exercised at runtime.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from e8f5f849ffce24490eb9449e98312b66c0dba76f to 9ec991e148368e3207e98134c509a625097f7693 (excl.)
  • affected from e8f5f849ffce24490eb9449e98312b66c0dba76f to dd03fd658ea59821505e0e643b6b7cbdf51c4e1d (excl.)
  • affected from e8f5f849ffce24490eb9449e98312b66c0dba76f to 1d1b0f1d812a4011a57bc6c70492c34a2e46c6dd (excl.)
  • affected from e8f5f849ffce24490eb9449e98312b66c0dba76f to 23b26f4408ac3f35a482d2e5cf6fc865d4201b71 (excl.)
  • Version b99f490ea87ebcca3a429fd8837067feb56a4c7c is affected
  • Version 5ee28bcfbaacf289eb25c662a2862542ea6ce6a7 is affected
  • Version 6b67a6d2e50634fe127e656147c81915955e9f5e is affected
  • affected from 5.15.128 to 5.16 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.1.47 to 6.2 (excl.)
  • affected from 6.4.12 to 6.5 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 6.5 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 6.5 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 6.12.111 to 6.12.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 6.18.53 to 6.18.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2.7 to 7.2.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.3-rc3 to * (incl.)

References