CVE-2025-21808 net: xdp: Disallow attaching device-bound programs in generic mode
Attaching device-bound XDP programs in generic mode causes kernel crashes due to invalid context access, leading to denial of service.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-21808?
CVE-2025-21808 is a high-severity 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: xdp: Disallow attaching device-bound programs in generic mode
Device-bound programs are used to support RX metadata kfuncs. These kfuncs are driver-specific and rely on the driver context to read the metadata. This means they can't work in generic XDP mode. However, there is no check to disallow such programs from being attached in generic mode, in which case the metadata kfuncs will be called in an invalid context, leading to crashes.
Fix this by adding a check to disallow attaching device-bound programs in generic mode.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21808?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-21808?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-21808 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21808 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-21808, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21808, GHSA-gh8v-hvqf-g2jx, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21808, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21808.