Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21852)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21852). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.12.17, 6.13.5 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

net: Add rx_skb of kfree_skb to raw_tp_null_args[].

Yan Zhai reported a BPF prog could trigger a null-ptr-deref [0]
in trace_kfree_skb if the prog does not check if rx_sk is NULL.

Commit c53795d48ee8 ("net: add rx_sk to trace_kfree_skb") added
rx_sk to trace_kfree_skb, but rx_sk is optional and could be NULL.

Let's add kfree_skb to raw_tp_null_args[] to let the BPF verifier
validate such a prog and prevent the issue.

Now we fail to load such a prog:

libbpf: prog 'drop': -- BEGIN PROG LOAD LOG --
0: R1=ctx() R10=fp0
; int BPF_PROG(drop, struct sk_buff *skb, void *location, @ kfree_skb_sk_null.bpf.c:21
0: (79) r3 = *(u64 *)(r1 +24)
func 'kfree_skb' arg3 has btf_id 5253 type STRUCT 'sock'
1: R1=ctx() R3_w=trusted_ptr_or_null_sock(id=1)
; bpf_printk("sk: %d, %d\n", sk, sk->_sk_common.skc_family); @ kfree_skb_sk_null.bpf.c:24
1: (69) r4 = *(u16 *)(r3 +16)
R3 invalid mem access 'trusted_ptr_or_null'
processed 2 insns (limit 1000000) max_states_per_insn 0 total_states 0 peak_states 0 mark_read 0
-- END PROG LOAD LOG --

Note this fix requires commit 838a10bd2ebf ("bpf: Augment raw_tp
arguments with PTR_MAYBE_NULL").

[0]:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010
PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 0 P4D 0
PREEMPT SMP
RIP: 0010:bpf_prog_5e21a6db8fcff1aa_drop+0x10/0x2d
Call Trace:

? __die+0x1f/0x60
? page_fau…

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-2025-21852 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.12.17, 6.13.5 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-21852" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-21852 (Kernel)
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 6.12.17, 6.13.5 — 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 6.12.17, 6.13.5.

🛡️ 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 6.12.17, 6.13.5
```
ステージング環境で 6.12.17, 6.13.5 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":"6.12.17"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.13.5"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-21852 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.41-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21852 linux Fixed in: 6.12.17-1