Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2025-21852 json

net: Add rx_skb of kfree_skb to raw_tp_null_args[].

published 2025-03-12 19 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2025-6395

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 12%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

net: Add rx_skb of kfree_skb to raw_tp_null_args[].

Yan Zhai reported a BPF prog could trigger a null-ptr-deref [0] in trace_kfree_skb if the prog does not check if rx_sk is NULL.

Commit c53795d48ee8 ("net: add rx_sk to trace_kfree_skb") added rx_sk to trace_kfree_skb, but rx_sk is optional and could be NULL.

Let's add kfree_skb to raw_tp_null_args[] to let the BPF verifier validate such a prog and prevent the issue.

Now we fail to load such a prog:

libbpf: prog 'drop': -- BEGIN PROG LOAD LOG -- 0: R1=ctx() R10=fp0 ; int BPF_PROG(drop, struct sk_buff *skb, void *location, @ kfree_skb_sk_null.bpf.c:21 0: (79) r3 = *(u64 *)(r1 +24) func 'kfree_skb' arg3 has btf_id 5253 type STRUCT 'sock' 1: R1=ctx() R3_w=trusted_ptr_or_null_sock(id=1) ; bpf_printk("sk: %d, %d\n", sk, sk->__sk_common.skc_family); @ kfree_skb_sk_null.bpf.c:24 1: (69) r4 = *(u16 *)(r3 +16) R3 invalid mem access 'trusted_ptr_or_null_' processed 2 insns (limit 1000000) max_states_per_insn 0 total_states 0 peak_states 0 mark_read 0 -- END PROG LOAD LOG --

Note this fix requires commit 838a10bd2ebf ("bpf: Augment raw_tp arguments with PTR_MAYBE_NULL").

[0]: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010 PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 PREEMPT SMP RIP: 0010:bpf_prog_5e21a6db8fcff1aa_drop+0x10/0x2d Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die+0x1f/0x60 ? page_fault_oops+0x148/0x420 ? search_bpf_extables+0x5b/0x70 ? fixup_exception+0x27/0x2c0 ? exc_page_fault+0x75/0x170 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? bpf_prog_5e21a6db8fcff1aa_drop+0x10/0x2d bpf_trace_run4+0x68/0xd0 ? unix_stream_connect+0x1f4/0x6f0 sk_skb_reason_drop+0x90/0x120 unix_stream_connect+0x1f4/0x6f0 __sys_connect+0x7f/0xb0 __x64_sys_connect+0x14/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x47/0xc30 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.12.17, 6.13.5, 6.14
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.17-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21852

  • linux-gcp-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-1015.15~24.04.1
  • linux-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-26.26~24.04.1
  • linux-oem-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-1022.22
  • linux-azure-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-1015.15~24.04.1
  • linux-nvidia-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-1010.10
  • linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-1014.15~24.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21852

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.3.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.3.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.3.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.7.3.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.3.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.3.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.3.1
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.39.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:01972-1SUSE-SU-2025:01967-1SUSE-SU-2025:01964-1SUSE-SU-2025:01951-1SUSE-SU-2025:01919-1SUSE-SU-2025:01707-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-21852 updated cvss 4.4

kernel: net: Add rx_skb of kfree_skb to raw_tp_null_args[].

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
13 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.