CVE-2026-43472
Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: unshare: fix unshare_fs() handling There's an unpleasant corner case in unshare(2), when we have a CLONE_NEWNS in flags and current->fs hadn't been shared at all; in that case copy_mnt_ns() gets passed current->fs instead of a private copy, which causes interesting warts in proof of correctness] > I guess if private means fs->users == 1, the condition could still be true. Unfortunately, it's worse than just a convoluted proof of correctness. Consider the case when we have CLONE_NEWCGROUP in addition to CLONE_NEWNS (and current->fs->users == 1). We pass current->fs to copy_mnt_ns(), all right. Suppose it succeeds and flips current->fs->{pwd,root} to corresponding locations in the new namespace. Now we proceed to copy_cgroup_ns(), which fails (e.g. with -ENOMEM). We call put_mnt_ns() on the namespace created by copy_mnt_ns(), it's destroyed and its mount tree is dissolved, but... current->fs->root and current->fs->pwd are both left pointing to now detached mounts. They are pinning those, so it's not a UAF, but it leaves the calling process with unshare(2) failing with -ENOMEM _and_ leaving it with pwd and root on detached isolated mounts. The last part is clearly a bug. There is other fun related to that mess (races with pivot_root(), including the one between pivot_root() and fork(), of all things), but this one is easy to isolate and fix - treat CLONE_NEWNS as "allocate a new fs_struct even if it hadn't been shared in the first place". Sure, we could go for something like "if both CLONE_NEWNS *and* one of the things that might end up failing after copy_mnt_ns() call in create_new_namespaces() are set, force allocation of new fs_struct", but let's keep it simple - the cost of copy_fs_struct() is trivial. Another benefit is that copy_mnt_ns() with CLONE_NEWNS *always* gets a freshly allocated fs_struct, yet to be attached to anything. That seriously simplifies the analysis... FWIW, that bug had been there since the introduction of unshare(2) ;-/
Severity
MEDIUM
CVSS score
5.5
(v3.1)
Vulnerability status
Analyzed
Source identifier
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Published
2026-05-08 15:17:00.313000
Last modified
2026-11-06 16:18:42.937000
View original CVE JSON
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"sourceIdentifier": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
"published": "2026-05-08T15:17:00.313",
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"value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nunshare: fix unshare_fs() handling\n\nThere's an unpleasant corner case in unshare(2), when we have a\nCLONE_NEWNS in flags and current->fs hadn't been shared at all; in that\ncase copy_mnt_ns() gets passed current->fs instead of a private copy,\nwhich causes interesting warts in proof of correctness]\n\n> I guess if private means fs->users == 1, the condition could still be true.\n\nUnfortunately, it's worse than just a convoluted proof of correctness.\nConsider the case when we have CLONE_NEWCGROUP in addition to CLONE_NEWNS\n(and current->fs->users == 1).\n\nWe pass current->fs to copy_mnt_ns(), all right. Suppose it succeeds and\nflips current->fs->{pwd,root} to corresponding locations in the new namespace.\nNow we proceed to copy_cgroup_ns(), which fails (e.g. with -ENOMEM).\nWe call put_mnt_ns() on the namespace created by copy_mnt_ns(), it's\ndestroyed and its mount tree is dissolved, but... current->fs->root and\ncurrent->fs->pwd are both left pointing to now detached mounts.\n\nThey are pinning those, so it's not a UAF, but it leaves the calling\nprocess with unshare(2) failing with -ENOMEM _and_ leaving it with\npwd and root on detached isolated mounts. The last part is clearly a bug.\n\nThere is other fun related to that mess (races with pivot_root(), including\nthe one between pivot_root() and fork(), of all things), but this one\nis easy to isolate and fix - treat CLONE_NEWNS as \"allocate a new\nfs_struct even if it hadn't been shared in the first place\". Sure, we could\ngo for something like \"if both CLONE_NEWNS *and* one of the things that might\nend up failing after copy_mnt_ns() call in create_new_namespaces() are set,\nforce allocation of new fs_struct\", but let's keep it simple - the cost\nof copy_fs_struct() is trivial.\n\nAnother benefit is that copy_mnt_ns() with CLONE_NEWNS *always* gets\na freshly allocated fs_struct, yet to be attached to anything. That\nseriously simplifies the analysis...\n\nFWIW, that bug had been there since the introduction of unshare(2) ;-/"
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