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

unshare: don't drop active namespace references that were never taken

Active references on the namespaces of an nsproxy are taken when the
nsproxy is installed into a task in switch_task_namespaces() and
copy_namespaces() and dropped again by put_nsproxy() through
deactivate_nsproxy().

But ksys_unshare() calls put_nsproxy() on an nsproxy that was never
installed when set_cred_ucounts() fails. The new namespaces of that
nsproxy go from zero to minus one and the namespaces shared with the
caller lose a reference that belongs to the nsproxy the caller keeps
using:

  WARNING: kernel/nscommon.c:171 at __ns_ref_active_put+0x1cd/0x230
   nsproxy_ns_active_put
   deactivate_nsproxy
   ksys_unshare

Afterwards the namespaces the caller lives in aren't listed by listns()
anymore. set_cred_ucounts() only fails when alloc_ucounts() can't
allocate and it only allocates when the real uid of the caller differs
from its effective uid.

Commit cefd55bd2159 ("nsproxy: fix free_nsproxy() and simplify
create_new_namespaces()") separated the two cases on purpose.
nsproxy_free() frees an nsproxy that was prepared but never installed
and that's what a failed setns() uses in put_nsset(). Export it and use
it for a failed unshare() as well.