CVE-2025-21706 mptcp: pm: only set fullmesh for subflow endp

What is CVE-2025-21706?

CVE-2025-21706 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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:

mptcp: pm: only set fullmesh for subflow endp

With the in-kernel path-manager, it is possible to change the 'fullmesh' flag. The code in mptcp_pm_nl_fullmesh() expects to change it only on 'subflow' endpoints, to recreate more or less subflows using the linked address.

Unfortunately, the set_flags() hook was a bit more permissive, and allowed 'implicit' endpoints to get the 'fullmesh' flag while it is not allowed before.

That's what syzbot found, triggering the following warning:

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 6499 at net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1496 __mark_subflow_endp_available net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1496 [inline] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 6499 at net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1496 mptcp_pm_nl_fullmesh net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1980 [inline] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 6499 at net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1496 mptcp_nl_set_flags net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:2003 [inline] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 6499 at net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1496 mptcp_pm_nl_set_flags+0x974/0xdc0 net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:2064 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6499 Comm: syz.1.413 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc5-syzkaller-00172-gd1bf27c4e176 #0 Hardware name: Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 RIP: 0010:__mark_subflow_endp_available net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1496 [inline] RIP: 0010:mptcp_pm_nl_fullmesh net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:1980 [inline] RIP: 0010:mptcp_nl_set_flags net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:2003 [inline] RIP: 0010:mptcp_pm_nl_set_flags+0x974/0xdc0 net/mptcp/pm_netlink.c:2064 Code: 01 00 00 49 89 c5 e8 fb 45 e8 f5 e9 b8 fc ff ff e8 f1 45 e8 f5 4c 89 f7 be 03 00 00 00 e8 44 1d 0b f9 eb a0 e8 dd 45 e8 f5 90 <0f> 0b 90 e9 17 ff ff ff 89 d9 80 e1 07 38 c1 0f 8c c9 fc ff ff 48 RSP: 0018:ffffc9000d307240 EFLAGS: 00010293 RAX: ffffffff8bb72e03 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffff88807da88000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000 RBP: ffffc9000d307430 R08: ffffffff8bb72cf0 R09: 1ffff1100b842a5e R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: ffffed100b842a5f R12: ffff88801e2e5ac0 R13: ffff88805c214800 R14: ffff88805c2152e8 R15: 1ffff1100b842a5d FS: 00005555619f6500(0000) GS:ffff8880b8600000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000020002840 CR3: 00000000247e6000 CR4: 00000000003526f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:1115 [inline] genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1195 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0xb14/0xec0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1210 netlink_rcv_skb+0x1e3/0x430 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2542 genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1219 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1321 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x7f6/0x990 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1347 netlink_sendmsg+0x8e4/0xcb0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1891 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:711 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x221/0x270 net/socket.c:726 ____sys_sendmsg+0x52a/0x7e0 net/socket.c:2583 ___sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2637 [inline] __sys_sendmsg+0x269/0x350 net/socket.c:2669 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x230 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f5fe8785d29 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 a8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007fff571f5558 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f5fe8975fa0 RCX: 00007f5fe8785d29 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000020000480 RDI: 0000000000000007 RBP: 00007f5fe8801b08 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 00007f5fe8975fa0 R14: 00007f5fe8975fa0 R15: 000000 ---truncated---

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21706?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-21706?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2025-21706 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21706 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-21706, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21706, GHSA-fx65-xwxc-78xx, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21706, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21706.