Bug 2387670 (CVE-2025-38499)

Summary: CVE-2025-38499 kernel: clone_private_mnt(): make sure that caller has CAP_SYS_ADMIN in the right userns
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: dfreiber, drow, jburrell, vkumar
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-08-11 17:01:28 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

clone_private_mnt(): make sure that caller has CAP_SYS_ADMIN in the right userns

What we want is to verify there is that clone won't expose something
hidden by a mount we wouldn't be able to undo.  "Wouldn't be able to undo"
may be a result of MNT_LOCKED on a child, but it may also come from
lacking admin rights in the userns of the namespace mount belongs to.

clone_private_mnt() checks the former, but not the latter.

There's a number of rather confusing CAP_SYS_ADMIN checks in various
userns during the mount, especially with the new mount API; they serve
different purposes and in case of clone_private_mnt() they usually,
but not always end up covering the missing check mentioned above.
Comment 1 Jon Moroney 2025-08-11 18:33:59 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025081112-CVE-2025-38499-4572@gregkh/T