# CVE-2025-21958: Revert "openvswitch: switch to per-action label counting in conntrack"

> A race condition in Open vSwitch conntrack label handling can trigger a kernel warning, potentially leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21958, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21958, GHSA-jx6v-7wmg-pq67, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21958

## What is CVE-2025-21958?

CVE-2025-21958 is a high-severity 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:

Revert "openvswitch: switch to per-action label counting in conntrack"

Currently, ovs_ct_set_labels() is only called for confirmed conntrack
entries (ct) within ovs_ct_commit(). However, if the conntrack entry
does not have the labels_ext extension, attempting to allocate it in
ovs_ct_get_conn_labels() for a confirmed entry triggers a warning in
nf_ct_ext_add():

  WARN_ON(nf_ct_is_confirmed(ct));

This happens when the conntrack entry is created externally before OVS
increments net->ct.labels_used. The issue has become more likely since
commit fcb1aa5163b1 ("openvswitch: switch to per-action label counting
in conntrack"), which changed to use per-action label counting and
increment net->ct.labels_used when a flow with ct action is added.

Since there’s no straightforward way to fully resolve this issue at the
moment, this reverts the commit to avoid breaking existing use cases.

Weakness: CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21958?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21958?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21958 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21958 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-2025-21958 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21958 is a high-severity 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-2025-21958 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-2025-21958/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21958/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21958
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21958
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21958

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21958/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.