WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get

Status: upstream: reported C repro on 2026/08/09 02:31
Reported-by: syzbot+c4554081deaee0158ab5@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
First crash: 16h37m, last: 14h45m
Similar bugs (4)
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 33 1d08h 11d 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 3 18h31m 12d 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 7d10h 12d 0/1 premoderation: reported C repro on 2026/07/28 17:48
linux-5.15 WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get origin:upstream 13 syz, C 1 14d 14d 0/3 upstream: reported C repro on 2026/07/25 20:51

Sample crash report:
------------[ cut here ]------------
refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 6139 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0xf3/0x1b0 lib/refcount.c:25
Modules linked in:
CPU: 1 PID: 6139 Comm: syz.3.194 Not tainted syzkaller #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 07/24/2026
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xf3/0x1b0 lib/refcount.c:25
Code: 45 0a 01 0f 85 98 00 00 00 e8 49 71 55 fd 5b 41 5e c3 e8 40 71 55 fd c6 05 e7 ff 44 0a 01 48 c7 c7 c0 b2 1c 8b e8 dd 3e 1f fd <0f> 0b eb e0 e8 24 71 55 fd c6 05 cc ff 44 0a 01 48 c7 c7 20 b3 1c
RSP: 0018:ffffc900048dfca8 EFLAGS: 00010246
RAX: 0a7df449c8a95700 RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: ffff88802ba83c00
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000002
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffff8880b8f28c53 R09: 1ffff110171e518a
R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: ffffed10171e518b R12: ffff8880267802b0
R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: ffff88801dba501c R15: ffff88805b007000
FS:  00005555562de500(0000) GS:ffff8880b8f00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f08d3270000 CR3: 00000000260f3000 CR4: 00000000003506e0
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+0x83/0x90 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+0x45e/0xfe0 fs/configfs/symlink.c:191
 vfs_symlink+0x138/0x2b0 fs/namei.c:4528
 do_symlinkat+0x1ba/0x400 fs/namei.c:4554
 __do_sys_symlinkat fs/namei.c:4570 [inline]
 __se_sys_symlinkat fs/namei.c:4567 [inline]
 __x64_sys_symlinkat+0x99/0xb0 fs/namei.c:4567
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:46 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x55/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:76
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x68/0xd2
RIP: 0033:0x7f08d339e0d9
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:00007ffc1ce91078 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000010a
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f08d3625fa0 RCX: 00007f08d339e0d9
RDX: 00002000000002c0 RSI: ffffffffffffff9c RDI: 0000200000000280
RBP: 00007f08d3435024 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 00007f08d3625fac R14: 00007f08d3625fa0 R15: 00007f08d3625fa0
 </TASK>

Crashes (2):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/08/09 04:23 linux-6.6.y 6436c12a2ced 5d63f80b .config console log report syz / log C [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci2-linux-6-6-kasan WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get
2026/08/09 02:31 linux-6.6.y 6436c12a2ced 5d63f80b .config console log report syz / log C [disk image] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci2-linux-6-6-kasan WARNING: refcount bug in config_item_get
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.