Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21751)
Summary
Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21751). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.12.48, 6.13.3 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net/mlx5: HWS, change error flow on matcher disconnect
Currently, when firmware failure occurs during matcher disconnect flow,
the error flow of the function reconnects the matcher back and returns
an error, which continues running the calling function and eventually
frees the matcher that is being disconnected.
This leads to a case where we have a freed matcher on the matchers list,
which in turn leads to use-after-free and eventual crash.
This patch fixes that by not trying to reconnect the matcher back when
some FW command fails during disconnect.
Note that we're dealing here with FW error. We can't overcome this
problem. This might lead to bad steering state (e.g. wrong connection
between matchers), and will also lead to resource leakage, as it is
the case with any other error handling during resource destruction.
However, the goal here is to allow the driver to continue and not crash
the machine with use-after-free error.
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-2025-21751 has been found in Kernel.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.12.48, 6.13.3 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-21751" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2025-21751 (Kernel)
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 6.12.48, 6.13.3 — 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 6.12.48, 6.13.3.
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 6.12.48, 6.13.3ステージング環境で 6.12.48, 6.13.3 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-2025-21751 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.51-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21751 linux Fixed in: 6.12.48-1
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21751 linux
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- package git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org