What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-38431: smb: client: fix regression with native SMB symlinks

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2025-07-25 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

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 products

• Linux kernel: from 6.14 before 6.15.5; 6.16-rc1, 6.16-rc2, 6.16-rc3 — fixed in 6.15.5

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.15.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6ddaf7567080c7de2e0c99efca2ee1e6b79beea5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ff8abbd248c1f52df0c321690b88454b13ff54b2

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