CVE-2025-71156 gve: defer interrupt enabling until NAPI registration

High 7.8 Published 23 Jan 2026 Updated 11 May 2026

A race condition in the gve network driver allows interrupts to fire before NAPI initialization, causing kernel crashes and 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-2025-71156?

CVE-2025-71156 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 23 Jan 2026. 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:

gve: defer interrupt enabling until NAPI registration

Currently, interrupts are automatically enabled immediately upon request. This allows interrupt to fire before the associated NAPI context is fully initialized and cause failures like below:

[ 0.946369] Call Trace: [ 0.946369] <IRQ> [ 0.946369] __napi_poll+0x2a/0x1e0 [ 0.946369] net_rx_action+0x2f9/0x3f0 [ 0.946369] handle_softirqs+0xd6/0x2c0 [ 0.946369] ? handle_edge_irq+0xc1/0x1b0 [ 0.946369] __irq_exit_rcu+0xc3/0xe0 [ 0.946369] common_interrupt+0x81/0xa0 [ 0.946369] </IRQ> [ 0.946369] <TASK> [ 0.946369] asm_common_interrupt+0x22/0x40 [ 0.946369] RIP: 0010:pv_native_safe_halt+0xb/0x10

Use the `IRQF_NO_AUTOEN` flag when requesting interrupts to prevent auto enablement and explicitly enable the interrupt in NAPI initialization path (and disable it during NAPI teardown).

This ensures that interrupt lifecycle is strictly coupled with readiness of NAPI context.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71156?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-71156?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-71156 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71156 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-71156, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71156, GHSA-xfmh-3cc9-8vq3, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-71156, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71156.