CVE-2025-39850 vxlan: Fix NPD in {arp,neigh}_reduce() when using nexthop objects
A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by sending specific ARP or Neighbor Solicitation messages to a VXLAN device configured with proxy and nexthop objects.
- 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-2025-39850?
CVE-2025-39850 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Sep 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:
vxlan: Fix NPD in {arp,neigh}_reduce() when using nexthop objects
When the "proxy" option is enabled on a VXLAN device, the device will suppress ARP requests and IPv6 Neighbor Solicitation messages if it is able to reply on behalf of the remote host. That is, if a matching and valid neighbor entry is configured on the VXLAN device whose MAC address is not behind the "any" remote (0.0.0.0 / ::).
The code currently assumes that the FDB entry for the neighbor's MAC address points to a valid remote destination, but this is incorrect if the entry is associated with an FDB nexthop group. This can result in a NPD [1][3] which can be reproduced using [2][4].
Fix by checking that the remote destination exists before dereferencing it.
[1] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [...] CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 365 Comm: arping Not tainted 6.17.0-rc2-virtme-g2a89cb21162c #2 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-4.fc41 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:vxlan_xmit+0xb58/0x15f0 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> dev_hard_start_xmit+0x5d/0x1c0 __dev_queue_xmit+0x246/0xfd0 packet_sendmsg+0x113a/0x1850 __sock_sendmsg+0x38/0x70 __sys_sendto+0x126/0x180 __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 do_syscall_64+0xa4/0x260 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
[2] #!/bin/bash
ip address add 192.0.2.1/32 dev lo
ip nexthop add id 1 via 192.0.2.2 fdb ip nexthop add id 10 group 1 fdb
ip link add name vx0 up type vxlan id 10010 local 192.0.2.1 dstport 4789 proxy
ip neigh add 192.0.2.3 lladdr 00:11:22:33:44:55 nud perm dev vx0
bridge fdb add 00:11:22:33:44:55 dev vx0 self static nhid 10
arping -b -c 1 -s 192.0.2.1 -I vx0 192.0.2.3
[3] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [...] CPU: 13 UID: 0 PID: 372 Comm: ndisc6 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc2-virtmne-g6ee90cb26014 #3 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1v996), BIOS 1.17.0-4.fc41 04/01/2x014 RIP: 0010:vxlan_xmit+0x803/0x1600 [...] Call Trace: <TASK> dev_hard_start_xmit+0x5d/0x1c0 __dev_queue_xmit+0x246/0xfd0 ip6_finish_output2+0x210/0x6c0 ip6_finish_output+0x1af/0x2b0 ip6_mr_output+0x92/0x3e0 ip6_send_skb+0x30/0x90 rawv6_sendmsg+0xe6e/0x12e0 __sock_sendmsg+0x38/0x70 __sys_sendto+0x126/0x180 __x64_sys_sendto+0x24/0x30 do_syscall_64+0xa4/0x260 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 RIP: 0033:0x7f383422ec77
[4] #!/bin/bash
ip address add 2001:db8:1::1/128 dev lo
ip nexthop add id 1 via 2001:db8:1::1 fdb ip nexthop add id 10 group 1 fdb
ip link add name vx0 up type vxlan id 10010 local 2001:db8:1::1 dstport 4789 proxy
ip neigh add 2001:db8:1::3 lladdr 00:11:22:33:44:55 nud perm dev vx0
bridge fdb add 00:11:22:33:44:55 dev vx0 self static nhid 10
ndisc6 -r 1 -s 2001:db8:1::1 -w 1 2001:db8:1::3 vx0
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39850?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-39850?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-39850 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39850 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as AZL-67565, AZL-72340, BELL-CVE-2025-39850, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39850, GHSA-53q5-cxhh-w27r, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-39850 and 5 more.