Bug 2559709 (CVE-2026-98989) - CVE-2026-98989 kernel: namespace: check a recursive bind mount for mount namespace loops
Summary: CVE-2026-98989 kernel: namespace: check a recursive bind mount for mount name...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-98989
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-10-23 13:19 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-27 21:46 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-10-23 13:19:33 UTC
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.


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