VYPR
Medium severity5.5NVD Advisory· Published Jul 25, 2025· Updated May 12, 2026

CVE-2025-38400

CVE-2025-38400

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

nfs: Clean up /proc/net/rpc/nfs when nfs_fs_proc_net_init() fails.

syzbot reported a warning below [1] following a fault injection in nfs_fs_proc_net_init(). [0]

When nfs_fs_proc_net_init() fails, /proc/net/rpc/nfs is not removed.

Later, rpc_proc_exit() tries to remove /proc/net/rpc, and the warning is logged as the directory is not empty.

Let's handle the error of nfs_fs_proc_net_init() properly.

[0]: FAULT_INJECTION: forcing a failure. name failslab, interval 1, probability 0, space 0, times 0 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 6120 Comm: syz.2.27 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1-syzkaller-00010-g2c4a1f3fe03e #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/07/2025 Call Trace:

dump_stack_lvl (lib/dump_stack.c:123) should_fail_ex (lib/fault-inject.c:73 lib/fault-inject.c:174) should_failslab (mm/failslab.c:46) kmem_cache_alloc_noprof (mm/slub.c:4178 mm/slub.c:4204) __proc_create (fs/proc/generic.c:427) proc_create_reg (fs/proc/generic.c:554) proc_create_net_data (fs/proc/proc_net.c:120) nfs_fs_proc_net_init (fs/nfs/client.c:1409) nfs_net_init (fs/nfs/inode.c:2600) ops_init (net/core/net_namespace.c:138) setup_net (net/core/net_namespace.c:443) copy_net_ns (net/core/net_namespace.c:576) create_new_namespaces (kernel/nsproxy.c:110) unshare_nsproxy_namespaces (kernel/nsproxy.c:218 (discriminator 4)) ksys_unshare (kernel/fork.c:3123) __x64_sys_unshare (kernel/fork.c:3190) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)

[1]: remove_proc_entry: removing non-empty directory 'net/rpc', leaking at least 'nfs' WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 6120 at fs/proc/generic.c:727 remove_proc_entry+0x45e/0x530 fs/proc/generic.c:727 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 6120 Comm: syz.2.27 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1-syzkaller-00010-g2c4a1f3fe03e #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/07/2025 RIP: 0010:remove_proc_entry+0x45e/0x530 fs/proc/generic.c:727 Code: 3c 02 00 0f 85 85 00 00 00 48 8b 93 d8 00 00 00 4d 89 f0 4c 89 e9 48 c7 c6 40 ba a2 8b 48 c7 c7 60 b9 a2 8b e8 33 81 1d ff 90 <0f> 0b 90 90 e9 5f fe ff ff e8 04 69 5e ff 90 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffffc90003637b08 EFLAGS: 00010282 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88805f534140 RCX: ffffffff817a92c8 RDX: ffff88807da99e00 RSI: ffffffff817a92d5 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: ffff888033431ac0 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff888033431a00 R13: ffff888033431ae4 R14: ffff888033184724 R15: dffffc0000000000 FS: 0000555580328500(0000) GS:ffff888124a62000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f71733743e0 CR3: 000000007f618000 CR4: 00000000003526f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace:

sunrpc_exit_net+0x46/0x90 net/sunrpc/sunrpc_syms.c:76 ops_exit_list net/core/net_namespace.c:200 [inline] ops_undo_list+0x2eb/0xab0 net/core/net_namespace.c:253 setup_net+0x2e1/0x510 net/core/net_namespace.c:457 copy_net_ns+0x2a6/0x5f0 net/core/net_namespace.c:574 create_new_namespaces+0x3ea/0xa90 kernel/nsproxy.c:110 unshare_nsproxy_namespaces+0xc0/0x1f0 kernel/nsproxy.c:218 ksys_unshare+0x45b/0xa40 kernel/fork.c:3121 __do_sys_unshare kernel/fork.c:3192 [inline] __se_sys_unshare kernel/fork.c:3190 [inline] __x64_sys_unshare+0x31/0x40 kernel/fork.c:3190 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0x490 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7fa1a6b8e929 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 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 c ---truncated---

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

In the Linux kernel, missing cleanup of /proc/net/rpc/nfs when nfs_fs_proc_net_init() fails can cause a warning and proc entry leak.

Vulnerability

Description

A flaw in the Linux kernel's NFS client initialization code causes a resource leak when nfs_fs_proc_net_init() fails. Specifically, if proc_create_net_data() fails (e.g., due to memory pressure), the error path does not remove the previously created /proc/net/rpc/nfs proc entry. This leads to an inconsistent state where the /proc/net/rpc directory is not empty when later cleanup routines attempt to remove it.

Exploitation

Scenario

The issue is triggered during network namespace initialization (e.g., unshare(CLONE_NEWNET)). An unprivileged user can force the failure by exhausting memory through fault injection or by other means, causing the kernel to take the error path. The attack surface is limited to local users with the ability to create new network namespaces, but no special privileges are required beyond that.

Impact

When the error occurs, subsequent removal of /proc/net/rpc triggers a kernel warning ("removing non-empty directory"), which may crash or degrade system stability. Additionally, the leaked proc entry consumes kernel memory, potentially leading to resource exhaustion over time. While not directly exploitable for privilege escalation, the warning indicates a kernel bug that can be used to cause denial of service.

Mitigation

Patches have been applied to the Linux kernel stable tree [2][3][4]. Users should update to kernel versions containing the fix, which properly removes the /proc/net/rpc/nfs entry in the error path of nfs_fs_proc_net_init().

AI Insight generated on May 19, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected products

8
  • cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • Linux/Kernel6 versions
    cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 5 more
    • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: >=5.4.276,<5.4.296
    • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
    • (no CPE)
  • Linux/Linuxv5
    Range: 6.9

Patches

0

No patches discovered yet.

Vulnerability mechanics

AI mechanics synthesis has not run for this CVE yet.

References

11

News mentions

0

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