Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21857)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21857). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.6.80, 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/sched: cls_api: fix error handling causing NULL dereference

tcf_exts_miss_cookie_base_alloc() calls xa_alloc_cyclic() which can
return 1 if the allocation succeeded after wrapping. This was treated as
an error, with value 1 returned to caller tcf_exts_init_ex() which sets
exts->actions to NULL and returns 1 to caller fl_change().

fl_change() treats err == 1 as success, calling tcf_exts_validate_ex()
which calls tcf_action_init() with exts->actions as argument, where it
is dereferenced.

Example trace:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
CPU: 114 PID: 16151 Comm: handler114 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 5.14.0-503.16.1.el9_5.x86_64 #1
RIP: 0010:tcf_action_init+0x1f8/0x2c0
Call Trace:
tcf_action_init+0x1f8/0x2c0
tcf_exts_validate_ex+0x175/0x190
fl_change+0x537/0x1120 [cls_flower]

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-2025-21857 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.6.80, 6.12.17, 6.13.5 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-21857" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-21857 (Kernel)
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Patched: 6.6.80, 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 6.6.80, 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 6.6.80, 6.12.17, 6.13.5
```
ステージング環境で 6.6.80, 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":"6.3.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.80"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"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-2025-21857 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.41-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21857 linux Fixed in: 6.12.17-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21857 linux-hwe-edge