cifs_errorf(fc, "symlinkroot mount options must be absolute path\n");
                        goto cifs_parse_mount_err;
                }
-               kfree(ctx->symlinkroot);
-               ctx->symlinkroot = kstrdup(param->string, GFP_KERNEL);
-               if (!ctx->symlinkroot)
+               if (strnlen(param->string, PATH_MAX) == PATH_MAX) {
+                       cifs_errorf(fc, "symlinkroot path too long (max path length: %u)\n",
+                                   PATH_MAX - 1);
                        goto cifs_parse_mount_err;
+               }
+               kfree(ctx->symlinkroot);
+               ctx->symlinkroot = param->string;
+               param->string = NULL;
                break;
        }
        /* case Opt_ignore: - is ignored as expected ... */
                goto cifs_parse_mount_err;
        }
 
-       /*
-        * By default resolve all native absolute symlinks relative to "/mnt/".
-        * Same default has drvfs driver running in WSL for resolving SMB shares.
-        */
-       if (!ctx->symlinkroot)
-               ctx->symlinkroot = kstrdup("/mnt/", GFP_KERNEL);
-
        return 0;
 
  cifs_parse_mount_err:
 
        struct reparse_symlink_data_buffer *buf = NULL;
        struct cifs_open_info_data data = {};
        struct cifs_sb_info *cifs_sb = CIFS_SB(inode->i_sb);
+       const char *symroot = cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot;
        struct inode *new;
        struct kvec iov;
        __le16 *path = NULL;
                .symlink_target = symlink_target,
        };
 
-       if (!(cifs_sb->mnt_cifs_flags & CIFS_MOUNT_POSIX_PATHS) && symname[0] == '/') {
+       if (!(cifs_sb->mnt_cifs_flags & CIFS_MOUNT_POSIX_PATHS) &&
+           symroot && symname[0] == '/') {
                /*
                 * This is a request to create an absolute symlink on the server
                 * which does not support POSIX paths, and expects symlink in
                 * ensure compatibility of this symlink stored in absolute form
                 * on the SMB server.
                 */
-               if (!strstarts(symname, cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot)) {
+               if (!strstarts(symname, symroot)) {
                        /*
                         * If the absolute Linux symlink target path is not
                         * inside "symlinkroot" location then there is no way
                        cifs_dbg(VFS,
                                 "absolute symlink '%s' cannot be converted to NT format "
                                 "because it is outside of symlinkroot='%s'\n",
-                                symname, cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot);
+                                symname, symroot);
                        rc = -EINVAL;
                        goto out;
                }
-               len = strlen(cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot);
-               if (cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot[len-1] != '/')
+               len = strlen(symroot);
+               if (symroot[len - 1] != '/')
                        len++;
                if (symname[len] >= 'a' && symname[len] <= 'z' &&
                    (symname[len+1] == '/' || symname[len+1] == '\0')) {
                              const char *full_path,
                              struct cifs_sb_info *cifs_sb)
 {
+       const char *symroot = cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot;
        char sep = CIFS_DIR_SEP(cifs_sb);
        char *linux_target = NULL;
        char *smb_target = NULL;
                goto out;
        }
 
-       if (!(cifs_sb->mnt_cifs_flags & CIFS_MOUNT_POSIX_PATHS) && !relative) {
+       if (!(cifs_sb->mnt_cifs_flags & CIFS_MOUNT_POSIX_PATHS) &&
+           symroot && !relative) {
                /*
                 * This is an absolute symlink from the server which does not
                 * support POSIX paths, so the symlink is in NT-style path.
                }
 
                abs_path_len = strlen(abs_path)+1;
-               symlinkroot_len = strlen(cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot);
-               if (cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot[symlinkroot_len-1] == '/')
+               symlinkroot_len = strlen(symroot);
+               if (symroot[symlinkroot_len - 1] == '/')
                        symlinkroot_len--;
                linux_target = kmalloc(symlinkroot_len + 1 + abs_path_len, GFP_KERNEL);
                if (!linux_target) {
                        rc = -ENOMEM;
                        goto out;
                }
-               memcpy(linux_target, cifs_sb->ctx->symlinkroot, symlinkroot_len);
+               memcpy(linux_target, symroot, symlinkroot_len);
                linux_target[symlinkroot_len] = '/';
                memcpy(linux_target + symlinkroot_len + 1, abs_path, abs_path_len);
        } else if (smb_target[0] == sep && relative) {