CVE-2025-68736
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
landlock: Fix handling of disconnected directories
Disconnected files or directories can appear when they are visible and opened from a bind mount, but have been renamed or moved from the source of the bind mount in a way that makes them inaccessible from the mount point (i.e. out of scope).
Previously, access rights tied to files or directories opened through a disconnected directory were collected by walking the related hierarchy down to the root of the filesystem, without taking into account the mount point because it couldn't be found. This could lead to inconsistent access results, potential access right widening, and hard-to-debug renames, especially since such paths cannot be printed.
For a sandboxed task to create a disconnected directory, it needs to have write access (i.e. FS_MAKE_REG, FS_REMOVE_FILE, and FS_REFER) to the underlying source of the bind mount, and read access to the related mount point. Because a sandboxed task cannot acquire more access rights than those defined by its Landlock domain, this could lead to inconsistent access rights due to missing permissions that should be inherited from the mount point hierarchy, while inheriting permissions from the filesystem hierarchy hidden by this mount point instead.
Landlock now handles files and directories opened from disconnected directories by taking into account the filesystem hierarchy when the mount point is not found in the hierarchy walk, and also always taking into account the mount point from which these disconnected directories were opened. This ensures that a rename is not allowed if it would widen access rights [1].
The rationale is that, even if disconnected hierarchies might not be visible or accessible to a sandboxed task, relying on the collected access rights from them improves the guarantee that access rights will not be widened during a rename because of the access right comparison between the source and the destination (see LANDLOCK_ACCESS_FS_REFER). It may look like this would grant more access on disconnected files and directories, but the security policies are always enforced for all the evaluated hierarchies. This new behavior should be less surprising to users and safer from an access control perspective.
Remove a wrong WARN_ON_ONCE() canary in collect_domain_accesses() and fix the related comment.
Because opened files have their access rights stored in the related file security properties, there is no impact for disconnected or unlinked files.
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
Landlock in the Linux kernel mishandled disconnected directories from bind mounts, potentially widening access rights during renames.
Vulnerability
Overview
CVE-2025-68736 is a security flaw in the Linux kernel's Landlock security module. When a file or directory becomes disconnected when it is opened from a bind mount but then renamed or moved from the bind mount's source, making it inaccessible from the mount point. Previously, Landlock collected access rights for such disconnected paths by walking the filesystem hierarchy down to the root, ignoring the mount point because it could not be found. This could lead to inconsistent access results and potential widening of access rights, especially during renames where the source and destination access rights are compared.
Exploitation
To create a disconnected directory, a sandboxed task must have write access (FS_MAKE_REG, FS_REMOVE_FILE, FS_REFER) to the underlying source of the bind mount and read access to the mount point. The vulnerability arises because a sandboxed task cannot acquire more rights than its Landlock domain, the bug could cause the system to inherit permissions from the filesystem hierarchy hidden by the mount point instead of the mount point hierarchy, leading to inconsistent access rights.
Impact
An attacker who can trigger a disconnected directory scenario may cause Landlock to grant access rights that should not be allowed, potentially bypassing sandbox restrictions. The vulnerability could also lead to hard-to-debug renames, as disconnected paths cannot be printed.
Mitigation
The fix ensures that Landlock now takes into account the filesystem hierarchy when the mount point from which the disconnected directory was opened, and also always considers the mount point from which the directory was opened. This prevents access right widening during renames. The patch has been applied to the Linux kernel stable tree [1][2]. Users should update to a patched kernel version.
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
1Patches
0No patches discovered yet.
Vulnerability mechanics
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References
3News mentions
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