# CVE-2025-21692: net: sched: fix ets qdisc OOB Indexing

> A local attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds index in the ETS qdisc scheduler to achieve privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 10 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-57012, AZL-57028, BELL-CVE-2025-21692, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21692, GHSA-2xh3-9jm8-r4r2, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21692

## What is CVE-2025-21692?

CVE-2025-21692 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Feb 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:

net: sched: fix ets qdisc OOB Indexing

Haowei Yan <g1042620637@gmail.com> found that ets_class_from_arg() can
index an Out-Of-Bound class in ets_class_from_arg() when passed clid of
0. The overflow may cause local privilege escalation.

 [   18.852298] ------------[ cut here ]------------
 [   18.853271] UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in net/sched/sch_ets.c:93:20
 [   18.853743] index 18446744073709551615 is out of range for type 'ets_class [16]'
 [   18.854254] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1275 Comm: poc Not tainted 6.12.6-dirty #17
 [   18.854821] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014
 [   18.856532] Call Trace:
 [   18.857441]  <TASK>
 [   18.858227]  dump_stack_lvl+0xc2/0xf0
 [   18.859607]  dump_stack+0x10/0x20
 [   18.860908]  __ubsan_handle_out_of_bounds+0xa7/0xf0
 [   18.864022]  ets_class_change+0x3d6/0x3f0
 [   18.864322]  tc_ctl_tclass+0x251/0x910
 [   18.864587]  ? lock_acquire+0x5e/0x140
 [   18.865113]  ? __mutex_lock+0x9c/0xe70
 [   18.866009]  ? __mutex_lock+0xa34/0xe70
 [   18.866401]  rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x170/0x6f0
 [   18.866806]  ? __lock_acquire+0x578/0xc10
 [   18.867184]  ? __pfx_rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x10/0x10
 [   18.867503]  netlink_rcv_skb+0x59/0x110
 [   18.867776]  rtnetlink_rcv+0x15/0x30
 [   18.868159]  netlink_unicast+0x1c3/0x2b0
 [   18.868440]  netlink_sendmsg+0x239/0x4b0
 [   18.868721]  ____sys_sendmsg+0x3e2/0x410
 [   18.869012]  ___sys_sendmsg+0x88/0xe0
 [   18.869276]  ? rseq_ip_fixup+0x198/0x260
 [   18.869563]  ? rseq_update_cpu_node_id+0x10a/0x190
 [   18.869900]  ? trace_hardirqs_off+0x5a/0xd0
 [   18.870196]  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0xcc/0x220
 [   18.870547]  ? do_syscall_64+0x93/0x150
 [   18.870821]  ? __memcg_slab_free_hook+0x69/0x290
 [   18.871157]  __sys_sendmsg+0x69/0xd0
 [   18.871416]  __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x1d/0x30
 [   18.871699]  x64_sys_call+0x9e2/0x2670
 [   18.871979]  do_syscall_64+0x87/0x150
 [   18.873280]  ? do_syscall_64+0x93/0x150
 [   18.874742]  ? lock_release+0x7b/0x160
 [   18.876157]  ? do_user_addr_fault+0x5ce/0x8f0
 [   18.877833]  ? irqentry_exit_to_user_mode+0xc2/0x210
 [   18.879608]  ? irqentry_exit+0x77/0xb0
 [   18.879808]  ? clear_bhb_loop+0x15/0x70
 [   18.880023]  ? clear_bhb_loop+0x15/0x70
 [   18.880223]  ? clear_bhb_loop+0x15/0x70
 [   18.880426]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
 [   18.880683] RIP: 0033:0x44a957
 [   18.880851] Code: ff ff e8 fc 00 00 00 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 66 90 f3 0f 1e fa 64 8b 04 25 18 00 00 00 85 c0 75 10 b8 2e 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 51 c3 48 83 ec 28 89 54 24 1c 48 8974 24 10
 [   18.881766] RSP: 002b:00007ffcdd00fad8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e
 [   18.882149] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007ffcdd010db8 RCX: 000000000044a957
 [   18.882507] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007ffcdd00fb70 RDI: 0000000000000003
 [   18.885037] RBP: 00007ffcdd010bc0 R08: 000000000703c770 R09: 000000000703c7c0
 [   18.887203] R10: 0000000000000080 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000001
 [   18.888026] R13: 00007ffcdd010da8 R14: 00000000004ca7d0 R15: 0000000000000001
 [   18.888395]  </TASK>
 [   18.888610] ---[ end trace ]---

Weakness: CWE-129 (Improper Validation of Array Index)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21692?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21692?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21692 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21692 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Proof of concept source code and misc files for my CVE-2025-21692 exploit, kernel version 6.6.75 (github_poc): https://github.com/volticks/CVE-2025-21692-poc

## 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-2025-21692 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21692 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Feb 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-2025-21692 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-2025-21692/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21692/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21692
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21692
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21692

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21692/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
