# CVE-2025-21682: eth: bnxt: always recalculate features after XDP clearing, fix null-deref

> A null pointer dereference in the bnxt Ethernet driver causes a kernel crash when XDP is detached and ring counts are modified, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/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:** 31 Jan 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-56384, AZL-56414, BELL-CVE-2025-21682, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21682, GHSA-862x-fxfw-xgq9, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-21682, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-21682, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-21682, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21682

## What is CVE-2025-21682?

CVE-2025-21682 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 31 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:

eth: bnxt: always recalculate features after XDP clearing, fix null-deref

Recalculate features when XDP is detached.

Before:
  # ip li set dev eth0 xdp obj xdp_dummy.bpf.o sec xdp
  # ip li set dev eth0 xdp off
  # ethtool -k eth0 | grep gro
  rx-gro-hw: off [requested on]

After:
  # ip li set dev eth0 xdp obj xdp_dummy.bpf.o sec xdp
  # ip li set dev eth0 xdp off
  # ethtool -k eth0 | grep gro
  rx-gro-hw: on

The fact that HW-GRO doesn't get re-enabled automatically is just
a minor annoyance. The real issue is that the features will randomly
come back during another reconfiguration which just happens to invoke
netdev_update_features(). The driver doesn't handle reconfiguring
two things at a time very robustly.

Starting with commit 98ba1d931f61 ("bnxt_en: Fix RSS logic in
__bnxt_reserve_rings()") we only reconfigure the RSS hash table
if the "effective" number of Rx rings has changed. If HW-GRO is
enabled "effective" number of rings is 2x what user sees.
So if we are in the bad state, with HW-GRO re-enablement "pending"
after XDP off, and we lower the rings by / 2 - the HW-GRO rings
doing 2x and the ethtool -L doing / 2 may cancel each other out,
and the:

  if (old_rx_rings != bp->hw_resc.resv_rx_rings &&

condition in __bnxt_reserve_rings() will be false.
The RSS map won't get updated, and we'll crash with:

  BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000168
  RIP: 0010:__bnxt_hwrm_vnic_set_rss+0x13a/0x1a0
    bnxt_hwrm_vnic_rss_cfg_p5+0x47/0x180
    __bnxt_setup_vnic_p5+0x58/0x110
    bnxt_init_nic+0xb72/0xf50
    __bnxt_open_nic+0x40d/0xab0
    bnxt_open_nic+0x2b/0x60
    ethtool_set_channels+0x18c/0x1d0

As we try to access a freed ring.

The issue is present since XDP support was added, really, but
prior to commit 98ba1d931f61 ("bnxt_en: Fix RSS logic in
__bnxt_reserve_rings()") it wasn't causing major issues.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21682?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21682?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21682 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21682 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-2025-21682 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21682 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 31 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-2025-21682 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-2025-21682/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21682/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21682
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21682
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21682

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21682/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.