CVE-2025-40090: ksmbd: fix recursive locking in RPC handle list access

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-40090 is a high (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.28% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 20.7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 30-10-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: fix recursive locking in RPC handle list access Since commit 305853cce3794 ("ksmbd: Fix race condition in RPC handle list access"), ksmbd_session_rpc_method() attempts to lock sess->rpc_lock. This causes hung connections / tasks when a client attempts to open a named pipe. Using Samba's rpcclient tool: $ rpcclient //192.168.1.254 -U user%password $ rpcclient $> srvinfo <connection hung here> Kernel side: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:kworker/0:0 state:D stack:0 pid:5021 tgid:5021 ppid:2 flags:0x00200000 Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work Call trace: __schedule from schedule+0x3c/0x58 schedule from schedule_preempt_disabled+0xc/0x10 schedule_preempt_disabled from rwsem_down_read_slowpath+0x1b0/0x1d8 rwsem_down_read_slowpath from down_read+0x28/0x30 down_read from ksmbd_session_rpc_method+0x18/0x3c ksmbd_session_rpc_method from ksmbd_rpc_open+0x34/0x68 ksmbd_rpc_open from ksmbd_session_rpc_open+0x194/0x228 ksmbd_session_rpc_open from create_smb2_pipe+0x8c/0x2c8 create_smb2_pipe from smb2_open+0x10c/0x27ac smb2_open from handle_ksmbd_work+0x238/0x3dc handle_ksmbd_work from process_scheduled_works+0x160/0x25c process_scheduled_works from worker_thread+0x16c/0x1e8 worker_thread from kthread+0xa8/0xb8 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38 Exception stack(0x8529ffb0 to 0x8529fff8) The task deadlocks because the lock is already held: ksmbd_session_rpc_open down_write(&sess->rpc_lock) ksmbd_rpc_open ksmbd_session_rpc_method down_read(&sess->rpc_lock) <-- deadlock Adjust ksmbd_session_rpc_method() callers to take the lock when necessary.

• CWE-674Uncontrolled RecursionThe product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.