CVE-2025-21998 firmware: qcom: uefisecapp: fix efivars registration race
A race condition in the Qualcomm UEFI security app driver can cause a NULL-pointer dereference, leading to a system crash.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-21998?
CVE-2025-21998 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 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:
firmware: qcom: uefisecapp: fix efivars registration race
Since the conversion to using the TZ allocator, the efivars service is registered before the memory pool has been allocated, something which can lead to a NULL-pointer dereference in case of a racing EFI variable access.
Make sure that all resources have been set up before registering the efivars.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21998?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-21998?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-21998 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21998 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-21998, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21998, GHSA-6hcp-x8fr-rwcv, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21998.