CVE-2025-21921

MEDIUM EPSS 7.5%
Published Apr 1, 20251y ago · Modified Jun 17, 20262w ago
5.5 CVSS 3.1
Medium
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Published Apr 1, 2025 1y ago
Last Modified Jun 17, 2026 2w ago

Description

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.

CVSS Details

Base Score
5.5
Exploitability
1.8
Impact
3.6
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector Local
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required Low
User Interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability High

Threat Intelligence

EPSS Exploit Probability
7.5% percentile
Exploit & Patch Status
No Known Exploit
Patch Available

Weaknesses 1

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference Memory Safety

Affected Products 7

VendorProductVersionRange
linuxlinux_kernel*≥6.12  –  <6.12.19
linuxlinux_kernel*≥6.13  –  <6.13.7
linuxlinux_kernel6.14any
linuxlinux_kernel6.14any
linuxlinux_kernel6.14any
linuxlinux_kernel6.14any
linuxlinux_kernel6.14any

References 3

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1f458fa42c29144cef280e05bc49fc21b873d897
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/637399bf7e77797811adf340090b561a8f9d1213
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/639c70352958735addbba5ae7dd65985da96e061
    Patch

Remediation

  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1f458fa42c29144cef280e05bc49fc21b873d897
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/637399bf7e77797811adf340090b561a8f9d1213
    Patch
  • git.kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/639c70352958735addbba5ae7dd65985da96e061
    Patch