Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2025-38282

kernfs: Relax constraint in draining guard

published

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kernfs: Relax constraint in draining guard The active reference lifecycle provides the break/unbreak mechanism but the active reference is not truly active after unbreak -- callers don't use it afterwards but it's important for proper pairing of kn->active counting. Assuming this mechanism is in place, the WARN check in kernfs_should_drain_open_files() is too sensitive -- it may transiently catch those (rightful) callers between kernfs_unbreak_active_protection() and kernfs_put_active() as found out by Chen Ridong: kernfs_remove_by_name_ns kernfs_get_active // active=1 __kernfs_remove // active=0x80000002 kernfs_drain ... wait_event //waiting (active == 0x80000001) kernfs_break_active_protection // active = 0x80000001 // continue kernfs_unbreak_active_protection // active = 0x80000002 ... kernfs_should_drain_open_files // warning occurs kernfs_put_active To avoid the false positives (mind panic_on_warn) remove the check altogether. (This is meant as quick fix, I think active reference break/unbreak may be simplified with larger rework.)

Technical severityUnscoredNo score in collected sources
Published2025-07-10Source updated 2026-11-05
Collected2026-11-052 attributed sources

Fixes and workarounds

No remediation reported in collected sources.

Missing remediation information is not evidence that no patch exists.

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority
Linux
Linux
≥ bdb2fd7fc56e197a63c0b0e7e07d25d5e20e7c72; < 2d6a67c2b3b87808a347dc1047b520a9dd177a4f (affected, git)
≥ bdb2fd7fc56e197a63c0b0e7e07d25d5e20e7c72; < 6c81f1c7812c61f187bed1b938f1d2e391d503ab (affected, git)
≥ bdb2fd7fc56e197a63c0b0e7e07d25d5e20e7c72; < 6bfb154f95d5f0ab7ed056f23aba8c1a94cb3927 (affected, git)
≥ bdb2fd7fc56e197a63c0b0e7e07d25d5e20e7c72; < 72275c888f8962b406ee9c6885c79bf68cca5a63 (affected, git)
≥ bdb2fd7fc56e197a63c0b0e7e07d25d5e20e7c72; < 071d8e4c2a3b0999a9b822e2eb8854784a350f8a (affected, git)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: Linux
Linux
Linux
6.1 (affected)
≥ 0; < 6.1 (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.1.142; ≤ 6.1.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.6.94; ≤ 6.6.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.12.34; ≤ 6.12.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.15.3; ≤ 6.15.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.16; ≤ * (unaffected, original_commit_for_fix)
Other versions: affected
CNA: Linux

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

No CVSS assessment reported. An unscored record is not a low-severity determination.

Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

References

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