Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21921)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2025-21921). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.12.19, 6.13.7 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

net: ethtool: netlink: Allow NULL nlattrs when getting a phy_device

ethnl_req_get_phydev() is used to lookup a phy_device, in the case an
ethtool netlink command targets a specific phydev within a netdev's
topology.

It takes as a parameter a const struct nlattr *header that's used for
error handling :

   if (!phydev) {
           NL_SET_ERR_MSG_ATTR(extack, header,
                               "no phy matching phyindex");
           return ERR_PTR(-ENODEV);
   }

In the notify path after a ->set operation however, there's no request
attributes available.

The typical callsite for the above function looks like:

phydev = ethnl_req_get_phydev(req_base, tb[ETHTOOL_A_XXX_HEADER],
			      info->extack);

So, when tb is NULL (such as in the ethnl notify path), we have a nice
crash.

It turns out that there's only the PLCA command that is in that case, as
the other phydev-specific commands don't have a notification.

This commit fixes the crash by passing the cmd index and the nlattr
array separately, allowing NULL-checking it directly inside the helper.

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-2025-21921 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.12.19, 6.13.7 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2025-21921" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2025-21921 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.12.19, 6.13.7 — 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 6.12.19, 6.13.7.

🛡️ 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 6.12.19, 6.13.7
```
ステージング環境で 6.12.19, 6.13.7 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":"6.12.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.19"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.13.7"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-21921 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.41-r0
Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21921 linux Fixed in: 6.12.19-1