# 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.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 19 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **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, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-39850, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-39850, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-39850, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-39850, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39850

## 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 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39850?

It affects 1 product.


Products: 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

- [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-2025-39850 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39850 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-2025-39850/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39850/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39850
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39850
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39850

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39850/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.