CVE-2025-21652

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Last Modified: UTC

Moderate Moderate Impact What does this mean?
7 CVSS v3 Base Score

Description

The MITRE CVE dictionary describes this issue as

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvlan: Fix use-after-free in ipvlan_get_iflink(). syzbot presented an use-after-free report [0] regarding ipvlan and linkwatch. ipvlan does not hold a refcnt of the lower device unlike vlan and macvlan. If the linkwatch work is triggered for the ipvlan dev, the lower dev might have already been freed, resulting in UAF of ipvlan->phy_dev in ipvlan_get_iflink(). We can delay the lower dev unregistration like vlan and macvlan by holding the lower dev's refcnt in dev->netdev_ops->ndo_init() and releasing it in dev->priv_destructor(). Jakub pointed out calling .ndo_XXX after unregister_netdevice() has returned is error prone and suggested [1] addressing this UAF in the core by taking commit 750e51603395 ("net: avoid potential UAF in default_operstate()") further. Let's assume unregistering devices DOWN and use RCU protection in default_operstate() not to race with the device unregistration. [0]: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in ipvlan_get_iflink+0x84/0x88 drivers/net/ipvlan/ipvlan_main.c:353 Read of size 4 at addr ffff0000d768c0e0 by task kworker/u8:35/6944 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6944 Comm: kworker/u8:35 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc2-g9bc5c9515b48 #12 4c3cb9e8b4565456f6a355f312ff91f4f29b3c47 Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) Workqueue: events_unbound linkwatch_event Call trace: show_stack+0x38/0x50 arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:484 (C) __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0xbc/0x108 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0x16c/0x6f0 mm/kasan/report.c:489 kasan_report+0xc0/0x120 mm/kasan/report.c:602 __asan_report_load4_noabort+0x20/0x30 mm/kasan/report_generic.c:380 ipvlan_get_iflink+0x84/0x88 drivers/net/ipvlan/ipvlan_main.c:353 dev_get_iflink+0x7c/0xd8 net/core/dev.c:674 default_operstate net/core/link_watch.c:45 [inline] rfc2863_policy+0x144/0x360 net/core/link_watch.c:72 linkwatch_do_dev+0x60/0x228 net/core/link_watch.c:175 __linkwatch_run_queue+0x2f4/0x5b8 net/core/link_watch.c:239 linkwatch_event+0x64/0xa8 net/core/link_watch.c:282 process_one_work+0x700/0x1398 kernel/workqueue.c:3229 process_scheduled_works kernel/workqueue.c:3310 [inline] worker_thread+0x8c4/0xe10 kernel/workqueue.c:3391 kthread+0x2b0/0x360 kernel/kthread.c:389 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:862 Allocated by task 9303: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x30/0x68 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x44/0x58 mm/kasan/generic.c:568 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0x84/0xa0 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4283 [inline] __kmalloc_node_noprof+0x2a0/0x560 mm/slub.c:4289 __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x9c/0x230 mm/util.c:650 alloc_netdev_mqs+0xb4/0x1118 net/core/dev.c:11209 rtnl_create_link+0x2b8/0xb60 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3595 rtnl_newlink_create+0x19c/0x868 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3771 __rtnl_newlink net/core/rtnetlink.c:3896 [inline] rtnl_newlink+0x122c/0x15c0 net/core/rtnetlink.c:4011 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x61c/0x918 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6901 netlink_rcv_skb+0x1dc/0x398 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2542 rtnetlink_rcv+0x34/0x50 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6928 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1321 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x618/0x838 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1347 netlink_sendmsg+0x5fc/0x8b0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1891 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:711 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:726 [inline] __sys_sendto+0x2ec/0x438 net/socket.c:2197 __do_sys_sendto net/socket.c:2204 [inline] __se_sys_sendto net/socket.c:2200 [inline] __arm64_sys_sendto+0xe4/0x110 net/socket.c:2200 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x90/0x278 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x13c/0x250 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x54/0x70 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el ---truncated---

Additional Information

External References

Content from www.cve.org is not included.https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21652

Content from nvd.nist.gov is not included.https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21652

Content from lore.kernel.org is not included.https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025011947-CVE-2025-21652-95d7@gregkh/T

Affected Packages and Issued Red Hat Security Errata

Products / Services Components State Errata
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel Fixed RHSA-2025:20095
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 kernel Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 kernel-rt Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 kernel-rt Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 kernel-rt Not affected
Unless explicitly stated as not affected, all previous versions of packages in any minor update stream of a product listed here should be assumed vulnerable, although may not have been subject to full analysis.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authorities (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown Red Hat NVD
CVSS v3 Base Score 7 7.8
Attack Vector Local Local
Attack Complexity High Low
Privileges Required Low Low
User Interaction None None
Scope Unchanged Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact High High
Integrity Impact High High
Availability Impact High High

CVSS v3 Vector

Red Hat CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Red Hat's CVSS v3 score or Impact different from other vendors?

 For open source software shipped by multiple vendors, the CVSS base scores may vary for each vendor's version depending on the version they ship, how they ship it, the platform, and even how the software is compiled. This makes scoring of vulnerabilities difficult for third-party vulnerability databases such as NVD that only provide a single CVSS base score for each vulnerability. Red Hat scores reflect how a vulnerability affects our products specifically.

For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/762393.

My product is listed as "Under investigation" or "Affected", when will Red Hat release a fix for this vulnerability?
  • "Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.
  • "Affected" means that our Analysis Team has determined that this product is affected by this vulnerability and might release a fix to address this in the near future.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Will not fix"?

 A "will not fix" status means that a fix for an affected product version is not planned or not possible due to complexity, which may create additional risk.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.

What can I do if my product is listed as "Fix deferred"?

 A deferred status means that a fix for an affected product version is not guaranteed due to higher-priority development work.

Available options depend mostly on the Impact of the vulnerability and the current Life Cycle phase of your product. Overall, you have the following options:
  • Apply a mitigation (if one exists).
  • Open a This content is not included.support case to request a prioritization of releasing a fix for this vulnerability.
  • Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on their complexity or limited lifecycle support. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

What is a mitigation?

 A mitigation is an action that can be taken to reduce the impact of a security vulnerability, without deploying any fixes.

I have a Red Hat product but it is not in the above list, is it affected?

 The listed products were found to include one or more of the components that this vulnerability affects. These products underwent a thorough evaluation to determine their affectedness by this vulnerability. Note that layered products (such as container-based offerings) that consume affected components from any of the products listed in this table may be affected and are not represented.

Why is my security scanner reporting my product as vulnerable to this vulnerability even though my product version is fixed or not affected?

 In order to maintain code stability and compatibility, Red Hat usually does not rebase packages to entirely new versions. Instead, we backport fixes and new features to an older version of the package we distribute. This can result in some security scanners that only consider the package version to report the package as vulnerable. To avoid this, we suggest that you use an approved vulnerability scanner from our This content is not included.Red Hat Vulnerability Scanner Certification program.

My product is listed as "Out of Support Scope". What does this mean?

 When a product is listed as "Out of Support Scope", it means a vulnerability with the impact level assigned to this CVE is no longer covered by its current support lifecycle phase. The product has been identified to contain the impacted component, but analysis to determine whether it is affected or not by this vulnerability was not performed. The product should be assumed to be affected. Customers are advised to apply any mitigation options documented on this page, consider removing or disabling the impacted component, or upgrade to a supported version of the product that has an update available.