CVE-2026-72379 fs: refuse O_TMPFILE creation with an unmapped fsuid or fsgid
Local attackers can create files with invalid ownership on idmapped mounts, potentially leading to privilege escalation or data integrity issues.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72379?
CVE-2026-72379 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs: refuse O_TMPFILE creation with an unmapped fsuid or fsgid
vfs_tmpfile() never checked that the caller's fsuid and fsgid map into the filesystem. On an idmapped mount whose idmapping does not cover the caller's fs{u,g}id, the ->tmpfile() instance initializes the new inode through inode_init_owner(), where mapped_fsuid()/mapped_fsgid() return INVALID_UID/INVALID_GID, and the tmpfile ends up owned by (uid_t)-1.
Every other creation path already refuses this: may_o_create() (O_CREAT) and may_create_dentry() (mkdir, mknod, symlink, link) bail out with -EOVERFLOW via fsuidgid_has_mapping() precisely so that an object cannot be created with an owner the filesystem cannot represent. An O_TMPFILE is no exception: it is created I_LINKABLE and linkat(2) can splice it into the namespace afterwards, so the same guarantee must hold.
Add the missing fsuidgid_has_mapping() check to vfs_tmpfile(). On a non-idmapped mount the caller's fs{u,g}id always map in the superblock's user namespace, so this is a no-op there and only takes effect on an idmapped mount that does not map the caller. It applies to every filesystem that sets FS_ALLOW_IDMAP and implements ->tmpfile() (tmpfs, ext4, btrfs, xfs, f2fs, ...), and to overlayfs, whose upper-layer tmpfile creation funnels through vfs_tmpfile() via backing_tmpfile_open().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72379?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72379?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-72379 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72379 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72379, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72379, GHSA-xpvr-4r6x-x86m, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72379.