CVE-2025-38282

The active reference lifecycle provides the break/unbreak mechanism but the active reference is not truly active after unbreak -- callers don't use it afterwards but it's important for proper pairing of kn->active counting. Assuming this mechanism is in place, the WARN check in kernfsshoulddrainopenfiles() is too sensitive -- it may transiently catch those (rightful) callers between kernfsunbreakactiveprotection() and kernfsput_active() as found out by Chen Ridong:

kernfs_remove_by_name_ns    kernfs_get_active // active=1
__kernfs_remove                   // active=0x80000002
kernfs_drain            ...
wait_event
//waiting (active == 0x80000001)
                kernfs_break_active_protection
                // active = 0x80000001
// continue
                kernfs_unbreak_active_protection
                // active = 0x80000002
...
kernfs_should_drain_open_files
// warning occurs
                kernfs_put_active

To avoid the false positives (mind paniconwarn) remove the check altogether. (This is meant as quick fix, I think active reference break/unbreak may be simplified with larger rework.)

References

Affected packages

Debian:12 / linux

Package

Name: linux
Purl: pkg:deb/debian/linux?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type: ECOSYSTEM
Events: Introduced

0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected

Fixed

6.1.147-1

Affected versions

6.*

6.1.27-1

6.1.37-1

6.1.38-1

6.1.38-2~bpo11+1

6.1.38-2

6.1.38-3

6.1.38-4~bpo11+1

6.1.38-4

6.1.52-1

6.1.55-1~bpo11+1

6.1.55-1

6.1.64-1

6.1.66-1

6.1.67-1

6.1.69-1~bpo11+1

6.1.69-1

6.1.76-1~bpo11+1

6.1.76-1

6.1.82-1

6.1.85-1

6.1.90-1~bpo11+1

6.1.90-1

6.1.94-1~bpo11+1

6.1.94-1

6.1.98-1

6.1.99-1

6.1.106-1

6.1.106-2

6.1.106-3

6.1.112-1

6.1.115-1

6.1.119-1

6.1.123-1

6.1.124-1

6.1.128-1

6.1.129-1

6.1.133-1

6.1.135-1

6.1.137-1

6.1.139-1

6.1.140-1

Ecosystem specific

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}

Debian:13 / linux

Package

Name: linux
Purl: pkg:deb/debian/linux?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type: ECOSYSTEM
Events: Introduced

0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected

Fixed

6.12.35-1

Ecosystem specific

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}

Debian:14 / linux

Package

Name: linux
Purl: pkg:deb/debian/linux?arch=source

Affected ranges

Type: ECOSYSTEM
Events: Introduced

0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected

Fixed

6.12.35-1

Ecosystem specific

{
    "urgency": "not yet assigned"
}