WARNING in __simple_recursive_removal

Status: moderation: reported on 2026/07/31 04:46
Subsystems: fs
[Documentation on labels]
Reported-by: syzbot+9a02195d405b2a800a28@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
First crash: 5d22h, last: 16h08m
✨ AI Jobs (2)
ID Workflow Result Correct Bug Created Started Finished Revision Error
ed9a8bb4 assessment-security 💥 WARNING in __simple_recursive_removal 2026/07/31 02:54 2026/07/31 02:54 2026/07/31 02:54 aaffb173
dashboard requested TargetOS "linux" TargetArch "386", but agent does not support it
3c45506a assessment-security 💥 WARNING in __simple_recursive_removal 2026/07/29 03:07 2026/07/29 03:07 2026/07/29 03:07 7be3c40b
dashboard requested TargetOS "linux" TargetArch "386", but agent does not support it

Sample crash report:
i2c i2c-2: failure reading functionality
i2c i2c-2: failure reading functionality
i2c i2c-2: failure reading functionality
------------[ cut here ]------------
inode->i_nlink == 0
WARNING: fs/inode.c:408 at drop_nlink+0xc5/0x110 fs/inode.c:408, CPU#0: syz.0.0/5327
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5327 Comm: syz.0.0 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) 
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:drop_nlink+0xc5/0x110 fs/inode.c:408
Code: 98 07 00 00 be 08 00 00 00 e8 47 69 e5 ff 3e 48 ff 83 98 07 00 00 5b 41 5c 41 5e 41 5f 5d c3 cc cc cc cc cc e8 9c 34 76 ff 90 <0f> 0b 90 eb 81 44 89 f1 80 e1 07 80 c1 03 38 c1 0f 8c 5b ff ff ff
RSP: 0018:ffffc9000f0af538 EFLAGS: 00010283
RAX: ffffffff8250f084 RBX: ffff8880442289a0 RCX: 0000000000100000
RDX: ffffc90020802000 RSI: 0000000000002582 RDI: 0000000000002583
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffffff9057bf37 R09: 1ffffffff20af7e6
R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffffbfff20af7e7 R12: 1ffff1100884513d
R13: ffff88801325e758 R14: ffff8880442289e8 R15: dffffc0000000000
FS:  00007fd9732876c0(0000) GS:ffff88808c53f000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 000055cc36eb6218 CR3: 000000001d323000 CR4: 0000000000352ef0
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __simple_recursive_removal+0x491/0x520 fs/libfs.c:631
 debugfs_remove+0x5b/0x70 fs/debugfs/inode.c:781
 i2c_device_probe+0x8dc/0xbf0 drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c:610
 call_driver_probe drivers/base/dd.c:-1 [inline]
 really_probe+0x254/0xae0 drivers/base/dd.c:706
 __driver_probe_device+0x1e8/0x360 drivers/base/dd.c:868
 driver_probe_device+0x4f/0x240 drivers/base/dd.c:898
 __device_attach_driver+0x270/0x410 drivers/base/dd.c:1026
 bus_for_each_drv+0x258/0x2f0 drivers/base/bus.c:500
 __device_attach+0x2c4/0x450 drivers/base/dd.c:1098
 device_initial_probe+0xa1/0xd0 drivers/base/dd.c:1153
 bus_probe_device+0x12a/0x220 drivers/base/bus.c:620
 device_add+0x7d7/0xb80 drivers/base/core.c:3772
 i2c_new_client_device+0xa29/0x1130 drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c:1019
 new_device_store+0x24b/0x530 drivers/i2c/i2c-core-base.c:1307
 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x3a4/0x540 fs/kernfs/file.c:345
 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:595 [inline]
 vfs_write+0x612/0xba0 fs/read_write.c:687
 ksys_write+0x150/0x270 fs/read_write.c:739
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x174/0x580 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7fd97239e019
Code: ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 e8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007fd973286fe8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fd972626090 RCX: 00007fd97239e019
RDX: 000000000000000b RSI: 0000200000000800 RDI: 0000000000000003
RBP: 00007fd97243500c R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 00007fd972626128 R14: 00007fd972626090 R15: 00007ffcb5017a38
 </TASK>

Crashes (2):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/08/01 10:32 upstream a2cf4ef33184 e611ffe1 .config console log report [disk image (non-bootable)] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-snapshot-upstream-root WARNING in __simple_recursive_removal
2026/07/27 04:38 upstream 4235cb24ec1e 4a865b71 .config console log report info [disk image (non-bootable)] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-qemu-upstream-386 WARNING in __simple_recursive_removal
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.