CVE-2025-37961 ipvs: fix uninit-value for saddr in do_output_route4

What is CVE-2025-37961?

CVE-2025-37961 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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:

ipvs: fix uninit-value for saddr in do_output_route4

syzbot reports for uninit-value for the saddr argument [1]. commit 4754957f04f5 ("ipvs: do not use random local source address for tunnels") already implies that the input value of saddr should be ignored but the code is still reading it which can prevent to connect the route. Fix it by changing the argument to ret_saddr.

[1] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in do_output_route4+0x42c/0x4d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:147 do_output_route4+0x42c/0x4d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:147 __ip_vs_get_out_rt+0x403/0x21d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:330 ip_vs_tunnel_xmit+0x205/0x2380 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:1136 ip_vs_in_hook+0x1aa5/0x35b0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_core.c:2063 nf_hook_entry_hookfn include/linux/netfilter.h:154 [inline] nf_hook_slow+0xf7/0x400 net/netfilter/core.c:626 nf_hook include/linux/netfilter.h:269 [inline] __ip_local_out+0x758/0x7e0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:118 ip_local_out net/ipv4/ip_output.c:127 [inline] ip_send_skb+0x6a/0x3c0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:1501 udp_send_skb+0xfda/0x1b70 net/ipv4/udp.c:1195 udp_sendmsg+0x2fe3/0x33c0 net/ipv4/udp.c:1483 inet_sendmsg+0x1fc/0x280 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:851 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x267/0x380 net/socket.c:727 ____sys_sendmsg+0x91b/0xda0 net/socket.c:2566 ___sys_sendmsg+0x28d/0x3c0 net/socket.c:2620 __sys_sendmmsg+0x41d/0x880 net/socket.c:2702 __compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:360 [inline] __do_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:367 [inline] __se_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:364 [inline] __ia32_compat_sys_sendmmsg+0xc8/0x140 net/compat.c:364 ia32_sys_call+0x3ffa/0x41f0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_32.h:346 do_syscall_32_irqs_on arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:83 [inline] __do_fast_syscall_32+0xb0/0x110 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:306 do_fast_syscall_32+0x38/0x80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:331 do_SYSENTER_32+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:369 entry_SYSENTER_compat_after_hwframe+0x84/0x8e

Uninit was created at: slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4167 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4210 [inline] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x8fa/0xe00 mm/slub.c:4367 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:905 [inline] ip_vs_dest_dst_alloc net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:61 [inline] __ip_vs_get_out_rt+0x35d/0x21d0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:323 ip_vs_tunnel_xmit+0x205/0x2380 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_xmit.c:1136 ip_vs_in_hook+0x1aa5/0x35b0 net/netfilter/ipvs/ip_vs_core.c:2063 nf_hook_entry_hookfn include/linux/netfilter.h:154 [inline] nf_hook_slow+0xf7/0x400 net/netfilter/core.c:626 nf_hook include/linux/netfilter.h:269 [inline] __ip_local_out+0x758/0x7e0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:118 ip_local_out net/ipv4/ip_output.c:127 [inline] ip_send_skb+0x6a/0x3c0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:1501 udp_send_skb+0xfda/0x1b70 net/ipv4/udp.c:1195 udp_sendmsg+0x2fe3/0x33c0 net/ipv4/udp.c:1483 inet_sendmsg+0x1fc/0x280 net/ipv4/af_inet.c:851 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:712 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x267/0x380 net/socket.c:727 ____sys_sendmsg+0x91b/0xda0 net/socket.c:2566 ___sys_sendmsg+0x28d/0x3c0 net/socket.c:2620 __sys_sendmmsg+0x41d/0x880 net/socket.c:2702 __compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:360 [inline] __do_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:367 [inline] __se_compat_sys_sendmmsg net/compat.c:364 [inline] __ia32_compat_sys_sendmmsg+0xc8/0x140 net/compat.c:364 ia32_sys_call+0x3ffa/0x41f0 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_32.h:346 do_syscall_32_irqs_on arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:83 [inline] __do_fast_syscall_32+0xb0/0x110 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:306 do_fast_syscall_32+0x38/0x80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:331 do_SYSENTER_32+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/syscall_32.c:369 entry_SYSENTER_compat_after_hwframe+0x84/0x8e

CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 22408 Comm: syz.4.5165 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc3-syzkaller-00019-gbc3372351d0c #0 PREEMPT(undef) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engi ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-908

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37961?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-37961?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-37961 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37961 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-72575, BELL-CVE-2025-37961, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37961, GHSA-9xjw-h43f-4f9m, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-37961, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37961 and 3 more.