{"id":"CVE-2025-38431","title":"smb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks","summary":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nsmb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks\n\nSome users and customers reported that their backup/copy tools started\nto fail when the directory being copied con…","severity":"none","vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","affected":["Linux >= 12b466eb52d926802b6898d2cb7e67386467f54a < 6ddaf7567080c7de2e0c99efca2ee1e6b79beea5","Linux >= 12b466eb52d926802b6898d2cb7e67386467f54a < ff8abbd248c1f52df0c321690b88454b13ff54b2","Linux 6.14"],"ssvc":{"exploitation":"none","automatable":"no","technicalImpact":"partial","timestamp":"2026-11-05T20:56:29.260746Z"},"published":"2025-07-25","updated":"2026-11-05","sourceUpdated":"2026-11-05T21:02:37.632Z","source":"CVEORG","sourceUrl":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38431","references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6ddaf7567080c7de2e0c99efca2ee1e6b79beea5"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ff8abbd248c1f52df0c321690b88454b13ff54b2"}],"tags":["cve.org"],"epss":0.00159,"epssPercentile":0.05129,"ingestedAt":"2026-11-05T22:38:31.969Z","slug":"CVE-2025-38431","body":"## Overview\n\nIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nsmb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks\n\nSome users and customers reported that their backup/copy tools started\nto fail when the directory being copied contained symlink targets that\nthe client couldn't parse - even when those symlinks weren't followed.\n\nFix this by allowing lstat(2) and readlink(2) to succeed even when the\nclient can't resolve the symlink target, restoring old behavior.\n\n## Affected\n\n- `Linux >= 12b466eb52d926802b6898d2cb7e67386467f54a < 6ddaf7567080c7de2e0c99efca2ee1e6b79beea5`\n- `Linux >= 12b466eb52d926802b6898d2cb7e67386467f54a < ff8abbd248c1f52df0c321690b88454b13ff54b2`\n- `Linux 6.14`\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":3,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":2.8,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}