Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21693)
Summary
Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21693). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.12.12 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm: zswap: properly synchronize freeing resources during CPU hotunplug
In zswap_compress() and zswap_decompress(), the per-CPU acomp_ctx of the
current CPU at the beginning of the operation is retrieved and used
throughout. However, since neither preemption nor migration are disabled,
it is possible that the operation continues on a different CPU.
If the original CPU is hotunplugged while the acomp_ctx is still in use,
we run into a UAF bug as some of the resources attached to the acomp_ctx
are freed during hotunplug in zswap_cpu_comp_dead() (i.e.
acomp_ctx.buffer, acomp_ctx.req, or acomp_ctx.acomp).
The problem was introduced in commit 1ec3b5fe6eec ("mm/zswap: move to use
crypto_acomp API for hardware acceleration") when the switch to the
crypto_acomp API was made. Prior to that, the per-CPU crypto_comp was
retrieved using get_cpu_ptr() which disables preemption and makes sure the
CPU cannot go away from under us. Preemption cannot be disabled with the
crypto_acomp API as a sleepable context is needed.
Use the acomp_ctx.mutex to synchronize CPU hotplug callbacks allocating
and freeing resources with compression/decompression paths. Make sure
that acomp_ctx.req is NULL when the resources are freed. In the
compression/decompression paths, check if acomp_ctx.req is NULL after
acquiring the mutex (meaning the CPU was offlined) and retry on the new
CPU.
The initialization of acomp_ctx.mutex is moved f…
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-21693 has been found in Kernel.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.12.12 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-21693" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2025-21693 (Kernel)
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 6.12.12 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.
Severity: ?. Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to 6.12.12.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
Kernelを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade Kernel to 6.12.12ステージング環境で 6.12.12 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-21693 linux-lts
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21693 linux
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21693 linux-hwe-edge
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- package git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org