vfs: Don't leak disconnected dentries on umount
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vfs: Don't leak disconnected dentries on umount When user calls open_by_handle_at() on some inode that is not cached, we will create disconnected dentry for it. If such dentry is a directory, exportfs_decode_fh_raw() will then try to connect this dentry to the dentry tree through reconnect_path(). It may happen for various reasons (such as corrupted fs or race with rename) that the call to lookup_one_unlocked() in reconnect_one() will fail to find the dentry we are trying to reconnect and instead create a new dentry under the parent. Now this dentry will not be marked as disconnected although the parent still may well be disconnected (at least in case this inconsistency happened because the fs is corrupted and .. doesn't point to the real parent directory). This creates inconsistency in disconnected flags but AFAICS it was mostly harmless. At least until commit f1ee616214cb ("VFS: don't keep disconnected dentries on d_anon") which removed adding of most disconnected dentries to sb->s_anon list. Thus after this commit cleanup of disconnected dentries implicitely relies on the fact that dput() will immediately reclaim such dentries. However when some leaf dentry isn't marked as disconnected, as in the scenario described above, the reclaim doesn't happen and the dentries are "leaked". Memory reclaim can eventually reclaim them but otherwise they stay in memory and if umount comes first, we hit infamous "Busy inodes after unmount" bug. Make sure all dentries created under a disconnected parent are marked as disconnected as well.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 4.16 and later | 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.196, 6.1.158, 6.6.114, 6.12.55, 6.17.5, 6.18 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.16 and later Fixed in 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.196, 6.1.158, 6.6.114, 6.12.55, 6.17.5, 6.18 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.4.301, 5.10.246, 5.15.196, 6.1.158, 6.6.114, 6.12.55, 6.17.5, 6.18
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-40105
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9wgm-cmcc-8467
- 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
Other 8
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b5abafd0aa8d7bcb935c8f91e4cfc2f2820759e4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/20863bb7fbb016379f8227122edfabc5c799bc79
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8004d4b8cbf1bd68a23c160d57287e177c82cc69
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e0c8aaf4e28918abded547a5147c7d52c4af7d2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cebfbf40056a4d858b2a3ca59a69936d599bd209
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/620f3b0ede9c5cb4976cd0457d0b04ad551e5d6b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/eadc49999fa994d6fbd70c332bd5d5051cc42261
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/56094ad3eaa21e6621396cc33811d8f72847a834
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Sources
- CVE-2025-40105 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-40105 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9wgm-cmcc-8467 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-40105 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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