CVE-2025-21812 ax25: rcu protect dev->ax25_ptr

What is CVE-2025-21812?

CVE-2025-21812 is a high-severity use after free 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:

ax25: rcu protect dev->ax25_ptr

syzbot found a lockdep issue [1].

We should remove ax25 RTNL dependency in ax25_setsockopt()

This should also fix a variety of possible UAF in ax25.

[1]

WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected 6.13.0-rc3-syzkaller-00762-g9268abe611b0 #0 Not tainted ------------------------------------------------------ syz.5.1818/12806 is trying to acquire lock: ffffffff8fcb3988 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0xa55/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:680

but task is already holding lock: ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline] ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0x209/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:574

which lock already depends on the new lock.

the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:

-> #1 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}: lock_acquire+0x1ed/0x550 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5849 lock_sock_nested+0x48/0x100 net/core/sock.c:3642 lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline] ax25_kill_by_device net/ax25/af_ax25.c:101 [inline] ax25_device_event+0x24d/0x580 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:146 notifier_call_chain+0x1a5/0x3f0 kernel/notifier.c:85 __dev_notify_flags+0x207/0x400 dev_change_flags+0xf0/0x1a0 net/core/dev.c:9026 dev_ifsioc+0x7c8/0xe70 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:563 dev_ioctl+0x719/0x1340 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:820 sock_do_ioctl+0x240/0x460 net/socket.c:1234 sock_ioctl+0x626/0x8e0 net/socket.c:1339 vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline] __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:906 [inline] __se_sys_ioctl+0xf5/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:892 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

-> #0 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}: check_prev_add kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3161 [inline] check_prevs_add kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3280 [inline] validate_chain+0x18ef/0x5920 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3904 __lock_acquire+0x1397/0x2100 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5226 lock_acquire+0x1ed/0x550 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5849 __mutex_lock_common kernel/locking/mutex.c:585 [inline] __mutex_lock+0x1ac/0xee0 kernel/locking/mutex.c:735 ax25_setsockopt+0xa55/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:680 do_sock_setsockopt+0x3af/0x720 net/socket.c:2324 __sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2349 [inline] __do_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2355 [inline] __se_sys_setsockopt net/socket.c:2352 [inline] __x64_sys_setsockopt+0x1ee/0x280 net/socket.c:2352 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

other info that might help us debug this:

Possible unsafe locking scenario:

CPU0 CPU1 ---- ---- lock(sk_lock-AF_AX25); lock(rtnl_mutex); lock(sk_lock-AF_AX25); lock(rtnl_mutex);

*** DEADLOCK ***

1 lock held by syz.5.1818/12806: #0: ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline] #0: ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0x209/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:574

stack backtrace: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 12806 Comm: syz.5.1818 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc3-syzkaller-00762-g9268abe611b0 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_circular_bug+0x13a/0x1b0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:2074 check_noncircular+0x36a/0x4a0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:2206 check_prev_add kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3161 [inline] check_prevs_add kernel/lockin ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21812?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-21812?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2025-21812 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21812 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-2025-21812, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21812, GHSA-5qmp-w6rv-24wf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-21812, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-21812, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21812 and 1 more.