# CVE-2025-21710: tcp: correct handling of extreme memory squeeze

> A flaw in Linux kernel TCP window handling under memory pressure can cause connections to stall, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21710, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21710, GHSA-q383-xwj3-rcf5, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21710, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21710

## What is CVE-2025-21710?

CVE-2025-21710 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

tcp: correct handling of extreme memory squeeze

Testing with iperf3 using the "pasta" protocol splicer has revealed
a problem in the way tcp handles window advertising in extreme memory
squeeze situations.

Under memory pressure, a socket endpoint may temporarily advertise
a zero-sized window, but this is not stored as part of the socket data.
The reasoning behind this is that it is considered a temporary setting
which shouldn't influence any further calculations.

However, if we happen to stall at an unfortunate value of the current
window size, the algorithm selecting a new value will consistently fail
to advertise a non-zero window once we have freed up enough memory.
This means that this side's notion of the current window size is
different from the one last advertised to the peer, causing the latter
to not send any data to resolve the sitution.

The problem occurs on the iperf3 server side, and the socket in question
is a completely regular socket with the default settings for the
fedora40 kernel. We do not use SO_PEEK or SO_RCVBUF on the socket.

The following excerpt of a logging session, with own comments added,
shows more in detail what is happening:

//              tcp_v4_rcv(->)
//                tcp_rcv_established(->)
[5201<->39222]:     ==== Activating log @ net/ipv4/tcp_input.c/tcp_data_queue()/5257 ====
[5201<->39222]:     tcp_data_queue(->)
[5201<->39222]:        DROPPING skb [265600160..265665640], reason: SKB_DROP_REASON_PROTO_MEM
                       [rcv_nxt 265600160, rcv_wnd 262144, snt_ack 265469200, win_now 131184]
                       [copied_seq 259909392->260034360 (124968), unread 5565800, qlen 85, ofoq 0]
                       [OFO queue: gap: 65480, len: 0]
[5201<->39222]:     tcp_data_queue(<-)
[5201<->39222]:     __tcp_transmit_skb(->)
                        [tp->rcv_wup: 265469200, tp->rcv_wnd: 262144, tp->rcv_nxt 265600160]
[5201<->39222]:       tcp_select_window(->)
[5201<->39222]:         (inet_csk(sk)->icsk_ack.pending & ICSK_ACK_NOMEM) ? --> TRUE
                        [tp->rcv_wup: 265469200, tp->rcv_wnd: 262144, tp->rcv_nxt 265600160]
                        returning 0
[5201<->39222]:       tcp_select_window(<-)
[5201<->39222]:       ADVERTISING WIN 0, ACK_SEQ: 265600160
[5201<->39222]:     [__tcp_transmit_skb(<-)
[5201<->39222]:   tcp_rcv_established(<-)
[5201<->39222]: tcp_v4_rcv(<-)

// Receive queue is at 85 buffers and we are out of memory.
// We drop the incoming buffer, although it is in sequence, and decide
// to send an advertisement with a window of zero.
// We don't update tp->rcv_wnd and tp->rcv_wup accordingly, which means
// we unconditionally shrink the window.

[5201<->39222]: tcp_recvmsg_locked(->)
[5201<->39222]:   __tcp_cleanup_rbuf(->) tp->rcv_wup: 265469200, tp->rcv_wnd: 262144, tp->rcv_nxt 265600160
[5201<->39222]:     [new_win = 0, win_now = 131184, 2 * win_now = 262368]
[5201<->39222]:     [new_win >= (2 * win_now) ? --> time_to_ack = 0]
[5201<->39222]:     NOT calling tcp_send_ack()
                    [tp->rcv_wup: 265469200, tp->rcv_wnd: 262144, tp->rcv_nxt 265600160]
[5201<->39222]:   __tcp_cleanup_rbuf(<-)
                  [rcv_nxt 265600160, rcv_wnd 262144, snt_ack 265469200, win_now 131184]
                  [copied_seq 260040464->260040464 (0), unread 5559696, qlen 85, ofoq 0]
                  returning 6104 bytes
[5201<->39222]: tcp_recvmsg_locked(<-)

// After each read, the algorithm for calculating the new receive
// window in __tcp_cleanup_rbuf() finds it is too small to advertise
// or to update tp->rcv_wnd.
// Meanwhile, the peer thinks the window is zero, and will not send
// any more data to trigger an update from the interrupt mode side.

[5201<->39222]: tcp_recvmsg_locked(->)
[5201<->39222]:   __tcp_cleanup_rbuf(->) tp->rcv_wup: 265469200, tp->rcv_wnd: 262144, tp->rcv_nxt 265600160
[5201<->39222]:     [new_win = 262144, win_now = 131184, 2 * win_n
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21710?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21710?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21710 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21710 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-2025-21710 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21710 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21710 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-2025-21710/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21710/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21710
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21710
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21710

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21710/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.