[PATCH] ns: don't add init_ipc_ns and init_net without namespace support

From: Christian Brauner

Date: Fri Oct 30 2026 - 11:50:57 EST


When CONFIG_IPC_NS or CONFIG_NET_NS are turned off we still add the
initial ipc and network namespace to the namespace trees. ipc_ns_init()
calls ns_tree_add(&init_ipc_ns) whenever CONFIG_SYSVIPC is set and
setup_net() calls ns_tree_add_raw() on init_net whenever CONFIG_NET is
set.

But without CONFIG_IPC_NS and CONFIG_NET_NS these aren't namespaces
userspace can do anything with. They don't have proc_ns_operations so
there's no /proc/<pid>/ns/{ipc,net} for them, nsfs_fh_to_dentry()
refuses them with -EOPNOTSUPP, and since ns->ops is NULL
__ns_tree_add_raw() doesn't add them to the owner list of init_user_ns
either. So they end up half registered. That's also not how we treat
any of the other namespace types. Without CONFIG_UTS_NS, CONFIG_PID_NS,
CONFIG_TIME_NS or CONFIG_USER_NS the initial namespace is never added
to the tree.

listns() walks the unified tree and calls is_current_namespace() for
every namespace it finds via may_list_ns(). But is_current_namespace()
only knows about CLONE_NEWIPC and CLONE_NEWNET if CONFIG_IPC_NS and
CONFIG_NET_NS are set. Otherwise we end up in the default case and its
VFS_WARN_ON_ONCE(). Any unprivileged caller can trigger that with a
plain listns() call:

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 526 at fs/nsfs.c:508 is_current_namespace+0x12f/0x440
Call Trace:
legitimize_ns+0x25f/0x4c0
do_listns+0x185/0x5c0
__do_sys_listns+0x13b/0x300

Instead of teaching is_current_namespace() about namespaces that can't
be opened, only add the initial namespaces to the tree if their
namespace type is enabled. Move the registration of init_ipc_ns into
ipc/namespace.c which is only built with CONFIG_IPC_NS. That also fixes
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=n, CONFIG_POSIX_MQUEUE=y, CONFIG_IPC_NS=y where
ipc/shm.c isn't built and init_ipc_ns was never added at all. For the
network namespace only call ns_tree_add_raw() if CONFIG_NET_NS is set.
Without CONFIG_NET_NS cleanup_net() isn't built and init_net is never
removed so there's nothing to balance.

Fixes: 74b24a582e1f ("ipc: support ns lookup")
Fixes: 195f7422298d ("net: support ns lookup")
Reported-by: kernel test robot <yi1.lai@xxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/oe-lkp/202610260917.6248e316-lkp@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx # v6.18+
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
ipc/namespace.c | 7 +++++++
ipc/shm.c | 2 --
net/core/net_namespace.c | 4 +++-
3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ipc/namespace.c b/ipc/namespace.c
index 75aa7b469348..b54d23fd83d7 100644
--- a/ipc/namespace.c
+++ b/ipc/namespace.c
@@ -255,3 +255,10 @@ const struct proc_ns_operations ipcns_operations = {
.install = ipcns_install,
.owner = ipcns_owner,
};
+
+static int __init ipc_ns_tree_init(void)
+{
+ ns_tree_add(&init_ipc_ns);
+ return 0;
+}
+pure_initcall(ipc_ns_tree_init);
diff --git a/ipc/shm.c b/ipc/shm.c
index bb1a721a3e74..cbab3d16cf70 100644
--- a/ipc/shm.c
+++ b/ipc/shm.c
@@ -45,7 +45,6 @@
#include <linux/mount.h>
#include <linux/ipc_namespace.h>
#include <linux/rhashtable.h>
-#include <linux/nstree.h>

#include <linux/uaccess.h>

@@ -149,7 +148,6 @@ void shm_exit_ns(struct ipc_namespace *ns)
static int __init ipc_ns_init(void)
{
shm_init_ns(&init_ipc_ns);
- ns_tree_add(&init_ipc_ns);
return 0;
}

diff --git a/net/core/net_namespace.c b/net/core/net_namespace.c
index da5f881fbd3b..52c2bd44778a 100644
--- a/net/core/net_namespace.c
+++ b/net/core/net_namespace.c
@@ -447,7 +447,9 @@ static __net_init int setup_net(struct net *net)
down_write(&net_rwsem);
list_add_tail_rcu(&net->list, &net_namespace_list);
up_write(&net_rwsem);
- ns_tree_add_raw(net);
+ /* Without CONFIG_NET_NS init_net isn't exposed as a namespace. */
+ if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_NET_NS))
+ ns_tree_add_raw(net);
out:
return error;


---
base-commit: b44341e39d856e4cc6ad8ed94ebffd440f39846c
change-id: 20261030-work-nsfs-init_ns_tree-dce1ace46fe2