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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2025-21856 json

s390/ism: add release function for struct device

published 2025-03-12 19 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2025-7596

cvss
7.8
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 13%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

s390/ism: add release function for struct device

According to device_release() in /drivers/base/core.c, a device without a release function is a broken device and must be fixed.

The current code directly frees the device after calling device_add() without waiting for other kernel parts to release their references. Thus, a reference could still be held to a struct device, e.g., by sysfs, leading to potential use-after-free issues if a proper release function is not set.

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-2025-21856

  • 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-2025-21856

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 6.4.0-150700.20.3.1
  • 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-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.3.1
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.3.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.3.1
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP7, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP7, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 +2 more 6.4.0-150700.53.3.1
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 6.4.0-150700.53.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:01967-1SUSE-SU-2025:01951-1SUSE-SU-2025:01919-1SUSE-SU-2025:20192-1SUSE-SU-2025:20270-1SUSE-SU-2025:20190-1

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-2025-21856 updated cvss 6.7

kernel: s390/ism: add release function for struct device

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available
  • 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
total
Assessed
13 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 13% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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.