CVE-2026-98989
Received
Received - Intake
Mount Namespace Loop in Linux Kernel
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-98989, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-10-23
Last updated on: 2026-10-23
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
namespace: check a recursive bind mount for mount namespace loops
do_loopback() refuses to bind mount the file of a mount namespace that
is as old as the caller's or older because a mount namespace that holds
a mount of its own file, or of an ancestor's, would cause a cycle. But
it only checks the dentry the bind mount starts from. With MS_REC
everything below it is copied and do_loopback() passes
CL_COPY_MNT_NS_FILE so mount namespace files below the source are
copied.
That's fine for a source in the caller's own mount namespace. Every
mount namespace file in there passed the same check when it was
bind-mounted. It isn't fine for a source in another mount namespace.
may_copy_tree() accepts a bind mount of any nsfs or pidfs file no matter
what mount namespace it lives in so that /proc/<pid>/ns/<ns> and pidfds
can be bind mounted. If we create a bind-mount stack of mount namespaces
file descriptors the kernel will copy them irrespective of their
ancestoral relationship to the mount namespace in question:
151 146 0:7 net:[4026531833] /tmp/nrc/y rw - nsfs nsfs rw
152 151 0:7 mnt:[4026532293] /tmp/nrc/y rw - nsfs nsfs rw
Mount 152 is a mount of the mount namespace file of mount namespace
4026532293 inside mount namespace 4026532293. That namespace and every
mount in it are leaked... All it takes is a process in an older mount
namespace that stacks the file and repeating it leaks without limit:
after control: Shmem: 380 kB
child: mount(/proc/self/fd/6, MS_BIND|MS_REC): ok
after cycle: Shmem: 65916 kB
do_move_mount() runs check_for_nsfs_mounts() over a detached tree for
exactly that reason. Do the same for the copy before it is grafted.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
