fsnotify: do not generate ACCESS/MODIFY events on child for special files
inotify/fanotify do not allow users with no read access to a file to
subscribe to events (e.g. IN_ACCESS/IN_MODIFY), but they do allow the
same user to subscribe for watching events on children when the user
has access to the parent directory (e.g. /dev).
Users with no read access to a file but with read access to its parent
directory can still stat the file and see if it was accessed/modified
via atime/mtime change.
The same is not true for special files (e.g. /dev/null). Users will not
generally observe atime/mtime changes when other users read/write to
special files, only when someone sets atime/mtime via utimensat().
Align fsnotify events with this stat behavior and do not generate
ACCESS/MODIFY events to parent watchers on read/write of special files.
The events are still generated to parent watchers on utimensat(). This
closes some side-channels that could be possibly used for information
exfiltration [1].
[1] https://snee.la/pdf/pubs/file-notification-attacks.pdf
Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.
No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.
Additional remediation guidance may be available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Tracking
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| Source | ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
Debian DLA |
DLA-4475-1 | linux security update |
Debian DLA |
DLA-4476-1 | linux-6.1 security update |
Debian DSA |
DSA-6126-1 | linux security update |
Debian DSA |
DSA-6127-1 | linux security update |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8096-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8096-2 | Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8096-3 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8096-4 | Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8096-5 | Linux kernel (NVIDIA Tegra IGX) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8116-1 | Linux kernel (Intel IoTG Real-time) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8141-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8163-1 | Linux kernel (Azure FIPS) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8163-2 | Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8177-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8179-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8177-2 | Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8183-1 | Linux kernel (GCP) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8184-1 | Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8179-2 | Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8185-1 | Linux kernel (NVIDIA) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8179-3 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8183-2 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8203-1 | Linux kernel (Oracle) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8204-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi Real-time) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8185-2 | Linux kernel (Low Latency NVIDIA) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8179-4 | Linux kernel (GCP) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8243-1 | Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8245-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8257-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8258-1 | Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8260-1 | Linux kernel (Azure FIPS) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8261-1 | Linux kernel (Xilinx) vulnerabilities |
Ubuntu USN |
USN-8265-1 | Linux kernel (NVIDIA Tegra) vulnerabilities |
Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| References |
|
Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:15:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| References |
| |
| Metrics |
threat_severity
|
cvssV3_1
|
Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fsnotify: do not generate ACCESS/MODIFY events on child for special files inotify/fanotify do not allow users with no read access to a file to subscribe to events (e.g. IN_ACCESS/IN_MODIFY), but they do allow the same user to subscribe for watching events on children when the user has access to the parent directory (e.g. /dev). Users with no read access to a file but with read access to its parent directory can still stat the file and see if it was accessed/modified via atime/mtime change. The same is not true for special files (e.g. /dev/null). Users will not generally observe atime/mtime changes when other users read/write to special files, only when someone sets atime/mtime via utimensat(). Align fsnotify events with this stat behavior and do not generate ACCESS/MODIFY events to parent watchers on read/write of special files. The events are still generated to parent watchers on utimensat(). This closes some side-channels that could be possibly used for information exfiltration [1]. [1] https://snee.la/pdf/pubs/file-notification-attacks.pdf | |
| Title | fsnotify: do not generate ACCESS/MODIFY events on child for special files | |
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| References |
|
|
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: Linux
Published:
Updated: 2026-05-11T21:53:22.202Z
Reserved: 2025-12-24T10:30:51.037Z
Link: CVE-2025-68788
No data.
Status : Deferred
Published: 2026-01-13T16:15:58.623
Modified: 2026-04-15T00:35:42.020
Link: CVE-2025-68788
OpenCVE Enrichment
No data.
No weakness.
Debian DLA
Debian DSA
Ubuntu USN