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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2025-21854 json

sockmap, vsock: For connectible sockets allow only connected

published 2025-03-12 19 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2025-7594

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 14%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

sockmap, vsock: For connectible sockets allow only connected

sockmap expects all vsocks to have a transport assigned, which is expressed in vsock_proto::psock_update_sk_prot(). However, there is an edge case where an unconnected (connectible) socket may lose its previously assigned transport. This is handled with a NULL check in the vsock/BPF recv path.

Another design detail is that listening vsocks are not supposed to have any transport assigned at all. Which implies they are not supported by the sockmap. But this is complicated by the fact that a socket, before switching to TCP_LISTEN, may have had some transport assigned during a failed connect() attempt. Hence, we may end up with a listening vsock in a sockmap, which blows up quickly:

KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000120-0x0000000000000127] CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 56 Comm: kworker/7:0 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc1+ Workqueue: vsock-loopback vsock_loopback_work RIP: 0010:vsock_read_skb+0x4b/0x90 Call Trace: sk_psock_verdict_data_ready+0xa4/0x2e0 virtio_transport_recv_pkt+0x1ca8/0x2acc vsock_loopback_work+0x27d/0x3f0 process_one_work+0x846/0x1420 worker_thread+0x5b3/0xf80 kthread+0x35a/0x700 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

For connectible sockets, instead of relying solely on the state of vsk->transport, tell sockmap to only allow those representing established connections. This aligns with the behaviour for AF_INET and AF_UNIX.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.6.80, 6.12.17, 6.13.5, 6.14
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.17-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21854

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-78.78
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1035.37
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1036.38
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1032.36
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1033.33
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1034.39
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1019.21
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1035.39

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21854

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-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.11.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.11.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.20.11.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.11.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.11.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.11.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.11.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:03011-1SUSE-SU-2025:02997-1SUSE-SU-2025:02996-1SUSE-SU-2025:02969-1SUSE-SU-2025:02923-1SUSE-SU-2025:01967-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.82.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-58508

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2025-21854 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: sockmap, vsock: For connectible sockets allow only connected

  • 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

0.23% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 14% 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.