CVE-2025-21785 arm64: cacheinfo: Avoid out-of-bounds write to cacheinfo array

What is CVE-2025-21785?

CVE-2025-21785 is a high-severity memory corruption 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:

arm64: cacheinfo: Avoid out-of-bounds write to cacheinfo array

The loop that detects/populates cache information already has a bounds check on the array size but does not account for cache levels with separate data/instructions cache. Fix this by incrementing the index for any populated leaf (instead of any populated level).

Weakness: CWE-787

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21785?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-21785?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2025-21785 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21785 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 ALSA-2025:3260, ALSA-2025:3264, AZL-57956, BELL-CVE-2025-21785, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21785, GHSA-xqw5-f5f6-22vf and 16 more.