CVE-2026-68179

Technical Description

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

misc: nsm: only unlock nsm_dev on post-lock error paths

nsm_dev_ioctl() jumps to the common out label even when the initial

copy_from_user() fails before nsm->lock has been taken. The error path

then blindly unlocks a mutex that was never acquired.

This issue was found by our static analysis tool and then manually

reviewed against the current tree.

The grounded PoC kept the miscdevice ioctl entry and the pre-lock

copy_from_user(&raw, argp, _IOC_SIZE(cmd)) failure path by issuing

NSM_IOCTL_RAW with an invalid user pointer. That failure reaches the

shared out label before mutex_lock(&nsm->lock). Lockdep reported:

WARNING: bad unlock balance detected!

exploit/193 is trying to release lock (&global_nsm.lock) at:

nsm_dev_ioctl+0x5f/0xcf [vuln_msv]

but there are no more locks to release!

no locks held by exploit/193.

Return immediately on the pre-lock copy_from_user() failure and keep the

common unlock lab

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

References