CVE-2025-37876

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

netfs: Only create /proc/fs/netfs with CONFIG_PROC_FS

When testing a special config:

CONFIG_NETFS_SUPPORTS=y CONFIG_PROC_FS=n

The system crashes with something like:

[ 3.766197] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 3.766484] kernel BUG at mm/mempool.c:560! [ 3.766789] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 3.767123] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W [ 3.767777] Tainted: [W]=WARN [ 3.767968] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), [ 3.768523] RIP: 0010:mempool_alloc_slab.cold+0x17/0x19 [ 3.768847] Code: 50 fe ff 58 5b 5d 41 5c 41 5d 41 5e 41 5f e9 93 95 13 00 [ 3.769977] RSP: 0018:ffffc90000013998 EFLAGS: 00010286 [ 3.770315] RAX: 000000000000002f RBX: ffff888100ba8640 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 3.770749] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000003 RDI: 00000000ffffffff [ 3.771217] RBP: 0000000000092880 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffc90000013828 [ 3.771664] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 00000000ffffffea R12: 0000000000092cc0 [ 3.772117] R13: 0000000000000400 R14: ffff8881004b1620 R15: ffffea0004ef7e40 [ 3.772554] FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8881b5f3c000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 3.773061] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 3.773443] CR2: ffffffff830901b4 CR3: 0000000004296001 CR4: 0000000000770ef0 [ 3.773884] PKRU: 55555554 [ 3.774058] Call Trace: [ 3.774232] <TASK> [ 3.774371] mempool_alloc_noprof+0x6a/0x190 [ 3.774649] ? _printk+0x57/0x80 [ 3.774862] netfs_alloc_request+0x85/0x2ce [ 3.775147] netfs_readahead+0x28/0x170 [ 3.775395] read_pages+0x6c/0x350 [ 3.775623] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.775928] page_cache_ra_unbounded+0x1bd/0x2a0 [ 3.776247] filemap_get_pages+0x139/0x970 [ 3.776510] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.776820] filemap_read+0xf9/0x580 [ 3.777054] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.777368] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.777674] ? find_held_lock+0x32/0x90 [ 3.777929] ? netfs_start_io_read+0x19/0x70 [ 3.778221] ? netfs_start_io_read+0x19/0x70 [ 3.778489] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.778800] ? lock_acquired+0x1e6/0x450 [ 3.779054] ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5 [ 3.779379] netfs_buffered_read_iter+0x57/0x80 [ 3.779670] __kernel_read+0x158/0x2c0 [ 3.779927] bprm_execve+0x300/0x7a0 [ 3.780185] kernel_execve+0x10c/0x140 [ 3.780423] ? __pfx_kernel_init+0x10/0x10 [ 3.780690] kernel_init+0xd5/0x150 [ 3.780910] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50 [ 3.781156] ? __pfx_kernel_init+0x10/0x10 [ 3.781414] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 [ 3.781677] </TASK> [ 3.781823] Modules linked in: [ 3.782065] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

This is caused by the following error path in netfs_init():

    if (!proc_mkdir("fs/netfs", NULL))
            goto error_proc;

Fix this by adding ifdef in netfs_main(), so that /proc/fs/netfs is only created with CONFIG_PROC_FS.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate severity because triggering the kernel crash requires building a custom kernel with network filesystem support enabled while omitting procfs support, which limits the blast radius to non-standard environments. Standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernels always include procfs support by default, preventing the directory creation failure and subsequent uninitialized memory pool crash during initialization. Consequently, systems running default Red Hat kernel builds are not exposed to this flaw under supported operating conditions.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.