Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21713)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21713). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.12.13, 6.13.2 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

powerpc/pseries/iommu: Don't unset window if it was never set

On pSeries, when user attempts to use the same vfio container used by
different iommu group, the spapr_tce_set_window() returns -EPERM
and the subsequent cleanup leads to the below crash.

Kernel attempted to read user page (308) - exploit attempt?
BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000308
Faulting instruction address: 0xc0000000001ce358
Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1]
NIP: c0000000001ce358 LR: c0000000001ce05c CTR: c00000000005add0

NIP [c0000000001ce358] spapr_tce_unset_window+0x3b8/0x510
LR [c0000000001ce05c] spapr_tce_unset_window+0xbc/0x510
Call Trace:
spapr_tce_unset_window+0xbc/0x510 (unreliable)
tce_iommu_attach_group+0x24c/0x340 [vfio_iommu_spapr_tce]
vfio_container_attach_group+0xec/0x240 [vfio]
vfio_group_fops_unl_ioctl+0x548/0xb00 [vfio]
sys_ioctl+0x754/0x1580
system_call_exception+0x13c/0x330
system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec

--- interrupt: 3000

Fix this by having null check for the tbl passed to the
spapr_tce_unset_window().

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

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-2025-21713 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.12.13, 6.13.2 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-21713" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-21713 (Kernel)
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 6.12.13, 6.13.2 — 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.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 6.12.13, 6.13.2.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

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

1
Identify 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。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 6.12.13, 6.13.2
```
ステージング環境で 6.12.13, 6.13.2 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。
3
Post-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

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.11.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.13"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.13.2"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-21713 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.41-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21713 linux Fixed in: 6.12.13-1