# CVE-2025-21845: mtd: spi-nor: sst: Fix SST write failure

> A bug in the Linux kernel's SST SPI-NOR driver causes a kernel crash during write operations, leading to 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:** 12 Mar 2025
- **Updated:** 1 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21845, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21845, GHSA-263p-9rp6-x92j, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21845

## What is CVE-2025-21845?

CVE-2025-21845 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Mar 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:

mtd: spi-nor: sst: Fix SST write failure

'commit 18bcb4aa54ea ("mtd: spi-nor: sst: Factor out common write operation
to `sst_nor_write_data()`")' introduced a bug where only one byte of data
is written, regardless of the number of bytes passed to
sst_nor_write_data(), causing a kernel crash during the write operation.
Ensure the correct number of bytes are written as passed to
sst_nor_write_data().

Call trace:
[   57.400180] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[   57.404842] While writing 2 byte written 1 bytes
[   57.409493] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 737 at drivers/mtd/spi-nor/sst.c:187 sst_nor_write_data+0x6c/0x74
[   57.418464] Modules linked in:
[   57.421517] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 737 Comm: mtd_debug Not tainted 6.12.0-g5ad04afd91f9 #30
[   57.429517] Hardware name: Xilinx Versal A2197 Processor board revA - x-prc-02 revA (DT)
[   57.437600] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[   57.444557] pc : sst_nor_write_data+0x6c/0x74
[   57.448911] lr : sst_nor_write_data+0x6c/0x74
[   57.453264] sp : ffff80008232bb40
[   57.456570] x29: ffff80008232bb40 x28: 0000000000010000 x27: 0000000000000001
[   57.463708] x26: 000000000000ffff x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 0000000000000000
[   57.470843] x23: 0000000000010000 x22: ffff80008232bbf0 x21: ffff000816230000
[   57.477978] x20: ffff0008056c0080 x19: 0000000000000002 x18: 0000000000000006
[   57.485112] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: ffff80008232b580
[   57.492246] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: ffff8000816d1530 x12: 00000000000004a4
[   57.499380] x11: 000000000000018c x10: ffff8000816fd530 x9 : ffff8000816d1530
[   57.506515] x8 : 00000000fffff7ff x7 : ffff8000816fd530 x6 : 0000000000000001
[   57.513649] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000
[   57.520782] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff0008049b0000
[   57.527916] Call trace:
[   57.530354]  sst_nor_write_data+0x6c/0x74
[   57.534361]  sst_nor_write+0xb4/0x18c
[   57.538019]  mtd_write_oob_std+0x7c/0x88
[   57.541941]  mtd_write_oob+0x70/0xbc
[   57.545511]  mtd_write+0x68/0xa8
[   57.548733]  mtdchar_write+0x10c/0x290
[   57.552477]  vfs_write+0xb4/0x3a8
[   57.555791]  ksys_write+0x74/0x10c
[   57.559189]  __arm64_sys_write+0x1c/0x28
[   57.563109]  invoke_syscall+0x54/0x11c
[   57.566856]  el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xc0/0xe0
[   57.571557]  do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28
[   57.574868]  el0_svc+0x30/0xcc
[   57.577921]  el0t_64_sync_handler+0x120/0x12c
[   57.582276]  el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194
[   57.585933] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

[pratyush@kernel.org: add Cc stable tag]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21845?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21845?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21845 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21845 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-2025-21845 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21845 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Mar 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-2025-21845 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-2025-21845/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21845/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21845
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21845
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21845

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21845/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
