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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.8

CVE-2025-21954 in the critical feed json

netmem: prevent TX of unreadable skbs

published 2025-04-01 19 mo ago modified 2026-08-05 3 mo ago also EUVD-2025-9366

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 43%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

netmem: prevent TX of unreadable skbs

Currently on stable trees we have support for netmem/devmem RX but not TX. It is not safe to forward/redirect an RX unreadable netmem packet into the device's TX path, as the device may call dma-mapping APIs on dma addrs that should not be passed to it.

Fix this by preventing the xmit of unreadable skbs.

Tested by configuring tc redirect:

sudo tc qdisc add dev eth1 ingress sudo tc filter add dev eth1 ingress protocol ip prio 1 flower ip_proto \ tcp src_ip 192.168.1.12 action mirred egress redirect dev eth1

Before, I see unreadable skbs in the driver's TX path passed to dma mapping APIs.

After, I don't see unreadable skbs in the driver's TX path passed to dma mapping APIs.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.12.20, 6.13.8, 6.14
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.20-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21954

  • kernel RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • rv RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • perf RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • rtla RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • libperf RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • kernel-rt RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • kernel-64k RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1
  • kernel-core RHEL 10.1 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1

red hat advisories RHSA-2025:20095

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-2025-21954 updated cvss 4.1

kernel: netmem: prevent TX of unreadable skbs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) rv 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, perf 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, rtla 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, python3-perf 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-devel-matched 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-64k-devel-matched 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, +7 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 10) kernel 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-64k 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-tools 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-modules 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-64k-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, +28 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 10) libperf 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 10) kernel-rt 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-64k 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-modules 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-64k-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-debug-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, +14 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 10) kernel-rt 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-modules 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-debug-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-modules-core 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, kernel-rt-debug-modules 6.12.0-124.8.1.el10_1, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:20095
  • 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 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

Exploit prediction

0.51% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 43% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
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.