CVE-2025-38396

fs: export anon_inode_make_secure_inode() and fix secretmem LSM bypass

State
Published
Severity
7.8 High
Published
Jul 25, 2025
Updated
Aug 5, 2026
Reserved
Apr 16, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

fs: export anon_inode_make_secure_inode() and fix secretmem LSM bypass

Export anon_inode_make_secure_inode() to allow KVM guest_memfd to create anonymous inodes with proper security context. This replaces the current pattern of calling alloc_anon_inode() followed by inode_init_security_anon() for creating security context manually.

This change also fixes a security regression in secretmem where the S_PRIVATE flag was not cleared after alloc_anon_inode(), causing LSM/SELinux checks to be bypassed for secretmem file descriptors.

As guest_memfd currently resides in the KVM module, we need to export this symbol for use outside the core kernel. In the future, guest_memfd might be moved to core-mm, at which point the symbols no longer would have to be exported. When/if that happens is still unclear.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.17.8 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 2bfe15c5261212130f1a71f32a300bcf426443d4 to before 66d29d757c968d2bee9124816da5d718eb352959Affected
  • 2bfe15c5261212130f1a71f32a300bcf426443d4 to before e3eed01347721cd7a8819568161c91d538fbf229Affected
  • 2bfe15c5261212130f1a71f32a300bcf426443d4 to before f94c422157f3e43dd31990567b3e5d54b3e5b32bAffected
  • 2bfe15c5261212130f1a71f32a300bcf426443d4 to before 6ca45ea48530332a4ba09595767bd26d3232743bAffected
  • 2bfe15c5261212130f1a71f32a300bcf426443d4 to before cbe4134ea4bc493239786220bd69cb8a13493190Affected
LinuxLinux
  • 6.0Affected
  • before 6.0Not affected
  • 6.1.146 through 6.1.*Not affected
  • 6.6.97 through 6.6.*Not affected
  • 6.12.37 through 6.12.*Not affected
  • 6.15.6 through 6.15.*Not affected
  • 6.16 and laterNot affected

References

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