WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get

Status: upstream: reported C repro on 2026/07/25 20:51
Bug presence: origin:upstream
[Documentation on labels]
Reported-by: syzbot+a1bee4f9304714f38047@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
First crash: 9d07h, last: 9d07h
Bug presence (1)
Date Name Commit Repro Result
2026/07/30 upstream (ToT) 11028ab62899 C [report] KASAN: slab-use-after-free Write in config_item_get
Similar bugs (3)
Kernel Title Rank 🛈 Repro Cause bisect Fix bisect Count Last Reported Patched Status
upstream WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get fs prio:normal 13 syz, C error 28 1d23h 6d04h 0/29 upstream: reported C repro on 2026/07/29 00:08
linux-6.1 WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get 13 syz, C 2 1d21h 6d18h 0/3 upstream: reported C repro on 2026/07/28 10:20
android-6-12 WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get 13 syz, C 4 1d20h 6d10h 0/1 premoderation: reported C repro on 2026/07/28 17:48

Sample crash report:
------------[ cut here ]------------
refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 5440 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0xff/0x1a0 lib/refcount.c:25
Modules linked in:
CPU: 1 PID: 5440 Comm: syz.2.1074 Not tainted syzkaller #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/16/2026
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xff/0x1a0 lib/refcount.c:25
Code: 09 01 48 c7 c7 20 04 7a 8a e8 bd ba cc 05 0f 0b eb e0 e8 64 92 90 fd c6 05 7f e5 8e 09 01 48 c7 c7 60 03 7a 8a e8 a1 ba cc 05 <0f> 0b eb c4 e8 48 92 90 fd c6 05 64 e5 8e 09 01 48 c7 c7 c0 03 7a
RSP: 0018:ffffc90005e37c68 EFLAGS: 00010246
RAX: 798530d8ee696600 RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: ffff8880283b8000
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffc90005e37787 R09: 1ffff92000bc6ef0
R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffff52000bc6ef1 R12: ffff88807a1ad4b0
R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: 0000000000000002 R15: ffff88807801d000
FS:  0000555588b23500(0000) GS:ffff8880b9100000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 000055555698da38 CR3: 000000005ca8f000 CR4: 00000000003506e0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __refcount_add include/linux/refcount.h:-1 [inline]
 __refcount_inc include/linux/refcount.h:250 [inline]
 refcount_inc include/linux/refcount.h:267 [inline]
 kref_get include/linux/kref.h:45 [inline]
 config_item_get+0x7f/0x90 fs/configfs/item.c:104
 configfs_get_config_item fs/configfs/configfs_internal.h:128 [inline]
 get_target fs/configfs/symlink.c:125 [inline]
 configfs_symlink+0x463/0x13b0 fs/configfs/symlink.c:191
 vfs_symlink+0x245/0x3d0 fs/namei.c:4437
 do_symlinkat+0x1ab/0x6b0 fs/namei.c:4466
 __do_sys_symlinkat fs/namei.c:4483 [inline]
 __se_sys_symlinkat fs/namei.c:4480 [inline]
 __x64_sys_symlinkat+0x95/0xa0 fs/namei.c:4480
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x4c/0xa0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x66/0xd0
RIP: 0033:0x7faeaca69e99
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:00007ffe812208a8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000010a
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007faeaccf1fa0 RCX: 00007faeaca69e99
RDX: 0000200000000340 RSI: ffffffffffffff9c RDI: 0000200000000300
RBP: 00007faeacaffeaf R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 00007faeaccf1fac R14: 00007faeaccf1fa0 R15: 00007faeaccf1fa0
 </TASK>

Crashes (1):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/07/25 20:50 linux-5.15.y 674f684f7c61 492bab15 .config console log report syz / log C [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci2-linux-5-15-kasan WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.