CVE-2026-46040

Description

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.

PUBLISHED Reserved 2026-05-13 | Published 2026-05-27 | Updated 2026-06-01 | Assigner Linux

Product status

References

git.kernel.org/...c/3ab58cf42c46bf2366d2f55ae5c59299d5e178b7

git.kernel.org/...c/10edf7e0ffdc7faa18e2244b17722c1b882b8273

git.kernel.org/...c/3ad9ccea1b25435f6179b57aa891960beb7ce8f9

git.kernel.org/...c/8bcc1cd237ab5ccfdd102869fa031c541943cf40

git.kernel.org/...c/73ddc8518a32baff6bc17afda4ee1ebae5b4ed12

git.kernel.org/...c/fdaa42ca370d056428e5e171247c8fdce8dff36a

git.kernel.org/...c/9e48844f708eb48bae4e79cb21edc097c966306d

git.kernel.org/...c/6a320935fa4293e9e599ec9f85dc9eb3be7029f8

cve.org (CVE-2026-46040)

nvd.nist.gov (CVE-2026-46040)

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