CVE-2026-98983

NameCVE-2026-98983
DescriptionIn 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.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, ENISA, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Debian ELTS, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
linux (PTS)bookworm6.1.176-1vulnerable
bookworm (security)6.1.190-1vulnerable
trixie6.12.107-1vulnerable
trixie (security)6.12.116-1vulnerable
forky7.2.15-1fixed
sid7.3.4-1fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
linuxsource(unstable)7.2.11-1

Notes

https://git.kernel.org/linus/0b6f31a3c0b16066f812e94b52a704174a6f23cd (7.3-rc7)

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