# CVE-2025-21961: eth: bnxt: fix truesize for mb-xdp-pass case

> Incorrect truesize calculation in the bnxt network driver can cause kernel warnings and potential instability when XDP is enabled.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-60302, BELL-CVE-2025-21961, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21961, GHSA-v974-f78x-v6pq, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-21961, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21961, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21961

## What is CVE-2025-21961?

CVE-2025-21961 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

eth: bnxt: fix truesize for mb-xdp-pass case

When mb-xdp is set and return is XDP_PASS, packet is converted from
xdp_buff to sk_buff with xdp_update_skb_shared_info() in
bnxt_xdp_build_skb().
bnxt_xdp_build_skb() passes incorrect truesize argument to
xdp_update_skb_shared_info().
The truesize is calculated as BNXT_RX_PAGE_SIZE * sinfo->nr_frags but
the skb_shared_info was wiped by napi_build_skb() before.
So it stores sinfo->nr_frags before bnxt_xdp_build_skb() and use it
instead of getting skb_shared_info from xdp_get_shared_info_from_buff().

Splat looks like:
 ------------[ cut here ]------------
 WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 0 at net/core/skbuff.c:6072 skb_try_coalesce+0x504/0x590
 Modules linked in: xt_nat xt_tcpudp veth af_packet xt_conntrack nft_chain_nat xt_MASQUERADE nf_conntrack_netlink xfrm_user xt_addrtype nft_coms
 CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/2 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc2+ #3
 RIP: 0010:skb_try_coalesce+0x504/0x590
 Code: 4b fd ff ff 49 8b 34 24 40 80 e6 40 0f 84 3d fd ff ff 49 8b 74 24 48 40 f6 c6 01 0f 84 2e fd ff ff 48 8d 4e ff e9 25 fd ff ff <0f> 0b e99
 RSP: 0018:ffffb62c4120caa8 EFLAGS: 00010287
 RAX: 0000000000000003 RBX: ffffb62c4120cb14 RCX: 0000000000000ec0
 RDX: 0000000000001000 RSI: ffffa06e5d7dc000 RDI: 0000000000000003
 RBP: ffffa06e5d7ddec0 R08: ffffa06e6120a800 R09: ffffa06e7a119900
 R10: 0000000000002310 R11: ffffa06e5d7dcec0 R12: ffffe4360575f740
 R13: ffffe43600000000 R14: 0000000000000002 R15: 0000000000000002
 FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffa0755f700000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 00007f147b76b0f8 CR3: 00000001615d4000 CR4: 00000000007506f0
 PKRU: 55555554
 Call Trace:
  <IRQ>
  ? __warn+0x84/0x130
  ? skb_try_coalesce+0x504/0x590
  ? report_bug+0x18a/0x1a0
  ? handle_bug+0x53/0x90
  ? exc_invalid_op+0x14/0x70
  ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20
  ? skb_try_coalesce+0x504/0x590
  inet_frag_reasm_finish+0x11f/0x2e0
  ip_defrag+0x37a/0x900
  ip_local_deliver+0x51/0x120
  ip_sublist_rcv_finish+0x64/0x70
  ip_sublist_rcv+0x179/0x210
  ip_list_rcv+0xf9/0x130

How to reproduce:
<Node A>
ip link set $interface1 xdp obj xdp_pass.o
ip link set $interface1 mtu 9000 up
ip a a 10.0.0.1/24 dev $interface1
<Node B>
ip link set $interfac2 mtu 9000 up
ip a a 10.0.0.2/24 dev $interface2
ping 10.0.0.1 -s 65000

Following ping.py patch adds xdp-mb-pass case. so ping.py is going to be
able to reproduce this issue.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21961?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21961?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21961 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21961 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-2025-21961 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21961 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21961 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-2025-21961/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21961/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21961
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21961
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21961

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21961/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
