# CVE-2025-21916: usb: atm: cxacru: fix a flaw in existing endpoint checks

> A flaw in the cxacru USB ATM driver allows a malicious device to trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service via improper endpoint validation.

- **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:** 1 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21916, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21916, GHSA-q6h7-hvhw-m2p9, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21916, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21916

## What is CVE-2025-21916?

CVE-2025-21916 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 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:

usb: atm: cxacru: fix a flaw in existing endpoint checks

Syzbot once again identified a flaw in usb endpoint checking, see [1].
This time the issue stems from a commit authored by me (2eabb655a968
("usb: atm: cxacru: fix endpoint checking in cxacru_bind()")).

While using usb_find_common_endpoints() may usually be enough to
discard devices with wrong endpoints, in this case one needs more
than just finding and identifying the sufficient number of endpoints
of correct types - one needs to check the endpoint's address as well.

Since cxacru_bind() fills URBs with CXACRU_EP_CMD address in mind,
switch the endpoint verification approach to usb_check_XXX_endpoints()
instead to fix incomplete ep testing.

[1] Syzbot report:
usb 5-1: BOGUS urb xfer, pipe 3 != type 1
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1378 at drivers/usb/core/urb.c:504 usb_submit_urb+0xc4e/0x18c0 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:503
...
RIP: 0010:usb_submit_urb+0xc4e/0x18c0 drivers/usb/core/urb.c:503
...
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 cxacru_cm+0x3c8/0xe50 drivers/usb/atm/cxacru.c:649
 cxacru_card_status drivers/usb/atm/cxacru.c:760 [inline]
 cxacru_bind+0xcf9/0x1150 drivers/usb/atm/cxacru.c:1223
 usbatm_usb_probe+0x314/0x1d30 drivers/usb/atm/usbatm.c:1058
 cxacru_usb_probe+0x184/0x220 drivers/usb/atm/cxacru.c:1377
 usb_probe_interface+0x641/0xbb0 drivers/usb/core/driver.c:396
 really_probe+0x2b9/0xad0 drivers/base/dd.c:658
 __driver_probe_device+0x1a2/0x390 drivers/base/dd.c:800
 driver_probe_device+0x50/0x430 drivers/base/dd.c:830
...

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21916?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21916?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21916 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21916 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-2025-21916 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21916 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 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-2025-21916 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-2025-21916/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21916/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21916
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21916
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21916

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21916/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.