---
id: CVE-2025-38431
title: 'smb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  smb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks

  Some users and customers reported that their backup/copy tools started
  to 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'
---

## Overview

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

smb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks

Some users and customers reported that their backup/copy tools started
to fail when the directory being copied contained symlink targets that
the client couldn't parse - even when those symlinks weren't followed.

Fix this by allowing lstat(2) and readlink(2) to succeed even when the
client can't resolve the symlink target, restoring old behavior.

## Affected

- `Linux >= 12b466eb52d926802b6898d2cb7e67386467f54a < 6ddaf7567080c7de2e0c99efca2ee1e6b79beea5`
- `Linux >= 12b466eb52d926802b6898d2cb7e67386467f54a < ff8abbd248c1f52df0c321690b88454b13ff54b2`
- `Linux 6.14`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.