CVE-2026-90139: fuse: check for NULL root inode in fuse_fill_super_submount
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fuse: check for NULL root inode in fusefillsupersubmount
fuseiget() can return NULL when its inode allocation fails, but fusefillsupersubmount() passed the result straight to getfuseinode() and decremented fi->nlookup without checking it:
root = fuseiget(sb, parentfi->nodeid, ...); fi = getfuseinode(root); fi->nlookup--;
Inside fuseiget() the inode allocation can fail and return NULL. The submount root takes the iget5locked() path, whose allocinode() can fail under memory pressure (the auto-submount branch can fail the same way in newinode() or fuseallocsubmountlookup()):
inode = iget5locked(sb, nodeid, fuseinodeeq, fuseinodeset, &nodeid); if (!inode) return NULL;
A NULL root makes getfuseinode() a containerof() on NULL and the nlookup decrement a write to a bogus address, oopsing the mount. With CONFIGKASAN the following null pointer dereference is reported when the root inode allocation of an auto-submount fails (e.g. under memory pressure):
================================================================== BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in fusegettreesubmount+0x656/0x8b0 Read of size 8 at addr 00000000000002b0 by task ls/942 CPU: 0 PID: 942 Comm: ls Tainted: G W 6.6 #15 Call Trace: <TASK> fusegettreesubmount+0x656/0x8b0 vfsgettree+0x48/0x140 fcmount+0x13/0x50 fusedentryautomount+0x7a/0xb0 traversemounts+0xca/0x330 stepinto+0x339/0xac0 pathlookupat+0xc5/0x2f0 filenamelookup+0x163/0x2a0 vfsstatx+0xd5/0x200 dostatx+0x83/0xd0 x64sysstatx+0xa0/0xc0 dosyscall64+0x37/0x90 entrySYSCALL64afterhwframe+0x78/0xe2 </TASK> ==================================================================
Return -ENOMEM instead; the caller tears down the partially built superblock on error, matching the other error returns in this function.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which systems are exposed to this failure condition?
Systems using FUSE submounts are exposed when allocation of the submount root inode fails. The described allocation failure can occur under memory pressure, including in the auto-submount path.
What conditions are needed to trigger the crash?
The failure requires fuse_iget() to return NULL because inode allocation fails while setting up a submount root. The vulnerable code then uses that NULL result as a FUSE inode and decrements nlookup through a bogus address.
How would this issue appear on an affected system?
It can cause an oops while mounting the affected FUSE submount. With CONFIG_KASAN enabled, it is reported as a null-pointer dereference in fuse_get_tree_submount when auto-submount root inode allocation fails.