In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: fix a resource leak in copy_net_ns() error handling path Currently, preinit_net() does two things: (1) call ns_common_init() which might fail (2) initialize …

Overview

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

net: fix a resource leak in copy_net_ns() error handling path

Currently, preinit_net() does two things:

(1) call ns_common_init() which might fail (2) initialize resources which does not fail

However, preinit_net() is returning early when (1) fails, and copy_net_ns() is jumping to the dec_ucounts: label. As a result, resources allocated by net_alloc() are leaking. We need to call key_remove_domain() and net_passive_dec() in order to release resources allocated by net_alloc().

We cannot simply jump to the put_userns: label when preinit_net() failed, for (2) is not yet done. But we can reorder (1) and (2), for there is no dependency between (1) and (2). Therefore, this patch decouples (1) from preinit_net() and changes preinit_net() back to a void function, and calls ns_common_init() after preinit_net() succeeded. Then, we can jump to immediately after ns_common_free() of the put_userns: label.

Remediation

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

Vendor advisories

• Red Hat VEX · Low · affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · no fix planned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 · updated 2026-10-05 · vex