CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-38711 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 5.5

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb/server: avoid deadlock when linking with ReplaceIfExists If smb2_create_link() is called with ReplaceIfExists set and the name does exist then a deadlock will happen. ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_locked() will return with success and the parent directory will be locked. ksmbd_vfs_remove_file() will then remove the file. ksmbd_vfs_link() will then be called while the parent is still locked. It will try to lock the same parent and will deadlock. This patch moves the ksmbd_vfs_kern_path_unlock() call to *before* ksmbd_vfs_link() and then simplifies the code, removing the file_present flag variable.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (3.1)
Published
2025-09-04
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-667

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • debian / debian_linux / 11.0

Showing 2 representative product identities from 7 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Race condition, TOCTOU, and lifecycle synchronization

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map concurrent actors, shared state, lock boundaries, signals, callbacks, retries, and check-then-use sequences in the affected path.
  • Determine whether untrusted users can influence timing, object names, filesystem state, or repeated state transitions.
  • Identify clustered and multi-process behavior that repository-local tests may not represent.

Remediate safely

  • Make the sensitive state transition atomic or protect it with a consistently ordered synchronization primitive.
  • Perform authorization and invariant checks on the same authoritative object and transaction used for the operation.
  • Use unique private resources, safe ownership transfer, and idempotent operations; add deterministic concurrency regression tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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