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

ceph: fix memory leak in ceph_mds_auth_match()

We now free the temporary target path substring allocation on every
possible branch, instead of omitting the default branch. In some
cases, a memory leak occured, which could rapidly crash the system
(depending on how many file accesses were attempted).

This was detected in production because it caused a continuous memory
growth, eventually triggering kernel OOM and completely hard-locking
the kernel.

Relevant kmemleak stacktrace:

unreferenced object 0xffff888131e69900 (size 128):
comm "git", pid 66104, jiffies 4295435999
hex dump (first 32 bytes):
76 6f 6c 75 6d 65 73 2f 63 6f 6e 74 61 69 6e 65 volumes/containe
72 73 2f 67 69 74 65 61 2f 67 69 74 65 61 2f 67 rs/gitea/gitea/g
backtrace (crc 2f3bb450):
[<ffffffffaa68fb49>] __kmalloc_noprof+0x359/0x510
[<ffffffffc32bf1df>] ceph_mds_check_access+0x5bf/0x14e0 [ceph]
[<ffffffffc3235722>] ceph_open+0x312/0xd80 [ceph]
[<ffffffffaa7dd786>] do_dentry_open+0x456/0x1120
[<ffffffffaa7e3729>] vfs_open+0x79/0x360
[<ffffffffaa832875>] path_openat+0x1de5/0x4390
[<ffffffffaa834fcc>] do_filp_open+0x19c/0x3c0
[<ffffffffaa7e44a1>] do_sys_openat2+0x141/0x180
[<ffffffffaa7e4945>] __x64_sys_open+0xe5/0x1a0
[<ffffffffac2cc2f7>] do_syscall_64+0xb7/0x210
[<ffffffffac400130>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

It can be triggered by mouting a subdirectory of a CephFS filesystem,
and then trying to access files on this subdirectory with an auth token
using a path-scoped capability:

$ ceph auth get client.services
[client.services]
key = REDACTED
caps mds = "allow rw fsname=cephfs path=/volumes/"
caps mon = "allow r fsname=cephfs"
caps osd = "allow rw tag cephfs data=cephfs"

$ cat /proc/self/mounts
services@[REDACTED].cephfs=/volumes/containers /ceph/containers ceph rw,noatime,name=services,secret=<hidden>,ms_mode=prefer-crc,mount_timeout=300,acl,mon_addr=[REDACTED]:3300,recover_session=clean 0 0

$ seq 1 1000000 | xargs -P32 --replace={} touch /ceph/containers/file-{} && \
seq 1 1000000 | xargs -P32 --replace={} cat /ceph/containers/file-{}

[ idryomov: combine if statements, rename rc to path_matched and make
it a bool, formatting ]
Published: 2025-02-27
Score: 5.5 Medium
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

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Tracking

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Advisories
Source ID Title
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2025-5185 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix memory leak in ceph_mds_auth_match() We now free the temporary target path substring allocation on every possible branch, instead of omitting the default branch. In some cases, a memory leak occured, which could rapidly crash the system (depending on how many file accesses were attempted). This was detected in production because it caused a continuous memory growth, eventually triggering kernel OOM and completely hard-locking the kernel. Relevant kmemleak stacktrace: unreferenced object 0xffff888131e69900 (size 128): comm "git", pid 66104, jiffies 4295435999 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 76 6f 6c 75 6d 65 73 2f 63 6f 6e 74 61 69 6e 65 volumes/containe 72 73 2f 67 69 74 65 61 2f 67 69 74 65 61 2f 67 rs/gitea/gitea/g backtrace (crc 2f3bb450): [<ffffffffaa68fb49>] __kmalloc_noprof+0x359/0x510 [<ffffffffc32bf1df>] ceph_mds_check_access+0x5bf/0x14e0 [ceph] [<ffffffffc3235722>] ceph_open+0x312/0xd80 [ceph] [<ffffffffaa7dd786>] do_dentry_open+0x456/0x1120 [<ffffffffaa7e3729>] vfs_open+0x79/0x360 [<ffffffffaa832875>] path_openat+0x1de5/0x4390 [<ffffffffaa834fcc>] do_filp_open+0x19c/0x3c0 [<ffffffffaa7e44a1>] do_sys_openat2+0x141/0x180 [<ffffffffaa7e4945>] __x64_sys_open+0xe5/0x1a0 [<ffffffffac2cc2f7>] do_syscall_64+0xb7/0x210 [<ffffffffac400130>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f It can be triggered by mouting a subdirectory of a CephFS filesystem, and then trying to access files on this subdirectory with an auth token using a path-scoped capability: $ ceph auth get client.services [client.services] key = REDACTED caps mds = "allow rw fsname=cephfs path=/volumes/" caps mon = "allow r fsname=cephfs" caps osd = "allow rw tag cephfs data=cephfs" $ cat /proc/self/mounts services@[REDACTED].cephfs=/volumes/containers /ceph/containers ceph rw,noatime,name=services,secret=<hidden>,ms_mode=prefer-crc,mount_timeout=300,acl,mon_addr=[REDACTED]:3300,recover_session=clean 0 0 $ seq 1 1000000 | xargs -P32 --replace={} touch /ceph/containers/file-{} && \ seq 1 1000000 | xargs -P32 --replace={} cat /ceph/containers/file-{} [ idryomov: combine if statements, rename rc to path_matched and make it a bool, formatting ]
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7521-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7521-2 Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7521-3 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
History

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 20:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 12:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Weaknesses CWE-401
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 02:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

 cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Moderate

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 02:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ceph: fix memory leak in ceph_mds_auth_match() We now free the temporary target path substring allocation on every possible branch, instead of omitting the default branch. In some cases, a memory leak occured, which could rapidly crash the system (depending on how many file accesses were attempted). This was detected in production because it caused a continuous memory growth, eventually triggering kernel OOM and completely hard-locking the kernel. Relevant kmemleak stacktrace: unreferenced object 0xffff888131e69900 (size 128): comm "git", pid 66104, jiffies 4295435999 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 76 6f 6c 75 6d 65 73 2f 63 6f 6e 74 61 69 6e 65 volumes/containe 72 73 2f 67 69 74 65 61 2f 67 69 74 65 61 2f 67 rs/gitea/gitea/g backtrace (crc 2f3bb450): [<ffffffffaa68fb49>] __kmalloc_noprof+0x359/0x510 [<ffffffffc32bf1df>] ceph_mds_check_access+0x5bf/0x14e0 [ceph] [<ffffffffc3235722>] ceph_open+0x312/0xd80 [ceph] [<ffffffffaa7dd786>] do_dentry_open+0x456/0x1120 [<ffffffffaa7e3729>] vfs_open+0x79/0x360 [<ffffffffaa832875>] path_openat+0x1de5/0x4390 [<ffffffffaa834fcc>] do_filp_open+0x19c/0x3c0 [<ffffffffaa7e44a1>] do_sys_openat2+0x141/0x180 [<ffffffffaa7e4945>] __x64_sys_open+0xe5/0x1a0 [<ffffffffac2cc2f7>] do_syscall_64+0xb7/0x210 [<ffffffffac400130>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f It can be triggered by mouting a subdirectory of a CephFS filesystem, and then trying to access files on this subdirectory with an auth token using a path-scoped capability: $ ceph auth get client.services [client.services] key = REDACTED caps mds = "allow rw fsname=cephfs path=/volumes/" caps mon = "allow r fsname=cephfs" caps osd = "allow rw tag cephfs data=cephfs" $ cat /proc/self/mounts services@[REDACTED].cephfs=/volumes/containers /ceph/containers ceph rw,noatime,name=services,secret=<hidden>,ms_mode=prefer-crc,mount_timeout=300,acl,mon_addr=[REDACTED]:3300,recover_session=clean 0 0 $ seq 1 1000000 | xargs -P32 --replace={} touch /ceph/containers/file-{} && \ seq 1 1000000 | xargs -P32 --replace={} cat /ceph/containers/file-{} [ idryomov: combine if statements, rename rc to path_matched and make it a bool, formatting ]
Title ceph: fix memory leak in ceph_mds_auth_match()
References

Subscriptions

Linux Linux Kernel
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-05-11T21:05:28.186Z

Reserved: 2024-12-29T08:45:45.756Z

Link: CVE-2025-21737

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2025-10-01T16:55:31.336Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Modified

Published: 2025-02-27T03:15:14.327

Modified: 2025-10-01T20:18:22.513

Link: CVE-2025-21737

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2025-02-27T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2025-21737 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses