# CVE-2025-39851: vxlan: Fix NPD when refreshing an FDB entry with a nexthop object

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by sending crafted packets to a VXLAN interface with specific FDB configurations.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 19 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-67536, AZL-72343, BELL-CVE-2025-39851, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39851, GHSA-mhrj-pfxm-4x9v, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-39851, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-39851, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-39851, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-39851, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-39851, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39851

## What is CVE-2025-39851?

CVE-2025-39851 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Sep 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

vxlan: Fix NPD when refreshing an FDB entry with a nexthop object

VXLAN FDB entries can point to either a remote destination or an FDB
nexthop group. The latter is usually used in EVPN deployments where
learning is disabled.

However, when learning is enabled, an incoming packet might try to
refresh an FDB entry that points to an FDB nexthop group and therefore
does not have a remote. Such packets should be dropped, but they are
only dropped after dereferencing the non-existent remote, resulting in a
NPD [1] which can be reproduced using [2].

Fix by dropping such packets earlier. Remove the misleading comment from
first_remote_rcu().

[1]
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
[...]
CPU: 13 UID: 0 PID: 361 Comm: mausezahn Not tainted 6.17.0-rc1-virtme-g9f6b606b6b37 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary)
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.17.0-4.fc41 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:vxlan_snoop+0x98/0x1e0
[...]
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 vxlan_encap_bypass+0x209/0x240
 encap_bypass_if_local+0xb1/0x100
 vxlan_xmit_one+0x1375/0x17e0
 vxlan_xmit+0x6b4/0x15f0
 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 address add 192.0.2.2/32 dev lo

 ip nexthop add id 1 via 192.0.2.3 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 12345 localbypass
 ip link add name vx1 up type vxlan id 10020 local 192.0.2.2 dstport 54321 learning

 bridge fdb add 00:11:22:33:44:55 dev vx0 self static dst 192.0.2.2 port 54321 vni 10020
 bridge fdb add 00:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee dev vx1 self static nhid 10

 mausezahn vx0 -a 00:aa:bb:cc:dd:ee -b 00:11:22:33:44:55 -c 1 -q

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39851?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-39851?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-39851 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39851 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-2025-39851 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-39851 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Sep 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39851 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-2025-39851/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39851/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39851
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39851
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39851

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39851/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.