CVE-2025-37955 virtio-net: free xsk_buffs on error in virtnet_xsk_pool_enable()
A memory leak in the Linux kernel's virtio-net driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory, potentially causing a denial of service.
- 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-2025-37955?
CVE-2025-37955 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 20 May 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:
virtio-net: free xsk_buffs on error in virtnet_xsk_pool_enable()
The selftests added to our CI by Bui Quang Minh recently reveals that there is a mem leak on the error path of virtnet_xsk_pool_enable():
unreferenced object 0xffff88800a68a000 (size 2048): comm "xdp_helper", pid 318, jiffies 4294692778 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 0): __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x402/0x570 virtnet_xsk_pool_enable+0x293/0x6a0 (drivers/net/virtio_net.c:5882) xp_assign_dev+0x369/0x670 (net/xdp/xsk_buff_pool.c:226) xsk_bind+0x6a5/0x1ae0 __sys_bind+0x15e/0x230 __x64_sys_bind+0x72/0xb0 do_syscall_64+0xc1/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
Weakness: CWE-401
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37955?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-37955?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2025-37955 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37955 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-37955, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37955, GHSA-f2j7-h8j9-xxjc, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37955.