CVE-2025-38306 fs/fhandle.c: fix a race in call of has_locked_children()

What is CVE-2025-38306?

CVE-2025-38306 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

fs/fhandle.c: fix a race in call of has_locked_children()

may_decode_fh() is calling has_locked_children() while holding no locks. That's an oopsable race...

The rest of the callers are safe since they are holding namespace_sem and are guaranteed a positive refcount on the mount in question.

Rename the current has_locked_children() to __has_locked_children(), make it static and switch the fs/namespace.c users to it.

Make has_locked_children() a wrapper for __has_locked_children(), calling the latter under read_seqlock_excl(&mount_lock).

Weakness: CWE-362

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38306?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38306?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-38306 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38306 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38306, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38306, GHSA-93m4-3786-5phj, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38306, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38306.