netfs: Only create /proc/fs/netfs with CONFIG_PROC_FS
CVE: CVE-2025-37876
Component: kernel
Severity: Moderate
CVSS v3: 5.6/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Release date: 2025-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

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.


Remediation: