# CVE-2025-21643: netfs: Fix kernel async DIO

> A flaw in the Linux kernel netfs subsystem causes a warning and write failure during specific async DIO operations, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 19 Jan 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21643, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21643, GHSA-h8fh-268c-fhwm, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21643

## What is CVE-2025-21643?

CVE-2025-21643 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Jan 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

netfs: Fix kernel async DIO

Netfslib needs to be able to handle kernel-initiated asynchronous DIO that
is supplied with a bio_vec[] array.  Currently, because of the async flag,
this gets passed to netfs_extract_user_iter() which throws a warning and
fails because it only handles IOVEC and UBUF iterators.  This can be
triggered through a combination of cifs and a loopback blockdev with
something like:

        mount //my/cifs/share /foo
        dd if=/dev/zero of=/foo/m0 bs=4K count=1K
        losetup --sector-size 4096 --direct-io=on /dev/loop2046 /foo/m0
        echo hello >/dev/loop2046

This causes the following to appear in syslog:

        WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 109 at fs/netfs/iterator.c:50 netfs_extract_user_iter+0x170/0x250 [netfs]

and the write to fail.

Fix this by removing the check in netfs_unbuffered_write_iter_locked() that
causes async kernel DIO writes to be handled as userspace writes.  Note
that this change relies on the kernel caller maintaining the existence of
the bio_vec array (or kvec[] or folio_queue) until the op is complete.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21643?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21643?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21643 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21643 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-21643 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21643 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Jan 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21643 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21643/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21643/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21643
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21643
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21643

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21643/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.