ovl: keep err zero after successful ovl_cache_get()
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ovl: keep err zero after successful ovl_cache_get() ovl_iterate_merged() stores PTR_ERR(cache) in err before checking IS_ERR(cache). On success err holds the truncated cache pointer and can be returned as a bogus non-zero error. The syzbot reproducer reaches this through overlay-on-overlay readdir: getdents64 iterate_dir(outer overlay file) ovl_iterate_merged() ovl_cache_get() ovl_dir_read_merged() ovl_dir_read() iterate_dir(inner overlay file) ovl_iterate_merged() Only compute PTR_ERR(cache) on the error path.
02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE
Affected packages
04 / EVIDENCE
Source records
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ovl: keep err zero after successful ovl_cache_get() ovl_iterate_merged() stores PTR_ERR(cache) in err before checking IS_ERR(cache). On success err holds the truncated cache pointer and can be returned as a bogus non-zero error. The syzbot reproducer reaches this through overlay-on-overlay readdir: getdents64 iterate_dir(outer overlay file) ovl_iterate_merged() ovl_cache_get() ovl_dir_read_merged() ovl_dir_read() iterate_dir(inner overlay file) ovl_iterate_merged() Only compute PTR_ERR(cache) on the error path.
05 / REFERENCES
Further evidence
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1711b6ed6953cee5940ca4c3a6e77f1b3798cee2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7051909a01bfb883bfa78b27514854068ac4b85
- https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/53xxx/CVE-2026-53174.json
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53174