# CVE-2025-21806: net: let net.core.dev_weight always be non-zero

> A local administrator can cause a kernel warning and potential instability by setting net.core.dev_weight to zero, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 27 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21806, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21806, GHSA-mq5p-7q76-276p, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21806, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21806

## What is CVE-2025-21806?

CVE-2025-21806 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:

net: let net.core.dev_weight always be non-zero

The following problem was encountered during stability test:

(NULL net_device): NAPI poll function process_backlog+0x0/0x530 \
	returned 1, exceeding its budget of 0.
------------[ cut here ]------------
list_add double add: new=ffff88905f746f48, prev=ffff88905f746f48, \
	next=ffff88905f746e40.
WARNING: CPU: 18 PID: 5462 at lib/list_debug.c:35 \
	__list_add_valid_or_report+0xf3/0x130
CPU: 18 UID: 0 PID: 5462 Comm: ping Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.13.0-rc7+
RIP: 0010:__list_add_valid_or_report+0xf3/0x130
Call Trace:
? __warn+0xcd/0x250
? __list_add_valid_or_report+0xf3/0x130
enqueue_to_backlog+0x923/0x1070
netif_rx_internal+0x92/0x2b0
__netif_rx+0x15/0x170
loopback_xmit+0x2ef/0x450
dev_hard_start_xmit+0x103/0x490
__dev_queue_xmit+0xeac/0x1950
ip_finish_output2+0x6cc/0x1620
ip_output+0x161/0x270
ip_push_pending_frames+0x155/0x1a0
raw_sendmsg+0xe13/0x1550
__sys_sendto+0x3bf/0x4e0
__x64_sys_sendto+0xdc/0x1b0
do_syscall_64+0x5b/0x170
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

The reproduction command is as follows:
  sysctl -w net.core.dev_weight=0
  ping 127.0.0.1

This is because when the napi's weight is set to 0, process_backlog() may
return 0 and clear the NAPI_STATE_SCHED bit of napi->state, causing this
napi to be re-polled in net_rx_action() until __do_softirq() times out.
Since the NAPI_STATE_SCHED bit has been cleared, napi_schedule_rps() can
be retriggered in enqueue_to_backlog(), causing this issue.

Making the napi's weight always non-zero solves this problem.

Triggering this issue requires system-wide admin (setting is
not namespaced).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21806?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21806?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21806 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21806 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-2025-21806 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21806 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21806 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-2025-21806/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21806/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21806
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21806
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21806

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21806/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.