ax25: rcu protect dev->ax25_ptr (CVE-2025-21812)

Summary

ax25: rcu protect dev->ax25_ptr

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

ax25: rcu protect dev->ax25_ptr

syzbot found a lockdep issue [1].

We should remove ax25 RTNL dependency in ax25_setsockopt()

This should also fix a variety of possible UAF in ax25.

[1]

WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
6.13.0-rc3-syzkaller-00762-g9268abe611b0 #0 Not tainted

syz.5.1818/12806 is trying to acquire lock:
ffffffff8fcb3988 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0xa55/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:680

but task is already holding lock:
ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline]
ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0x209/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:574

which lock already depends on the new lock.

the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:

-> #1 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}:
lock_acquire+0x1ed/0x550 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5849
lock_sock_nested+0x48/0x100 net/core/sock.c:3642
lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline]
ax25_kill_by_device net/ax25/af_ax25.c:101 [inline]
ax25_device_event+0x24d/0x580 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:146
notifier_call_chain+0x1a5/0x3f0 kernel/notifier.c:85
__dev_notify_flags+0x207/0x400
dev_change_flags+0xf0/0x1a0 net/core/dev.c:9026
dev_ifsioc+0x7c8/0xe70 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:563
dev_ioctl+0x719/0x1340 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:820…

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

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.0.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.129"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.76"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"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-2025-21812 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.1.130-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21812 linux
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21812 linux