Description

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

nfsd: clear acl_access/acl_default after releasing them

If getting acl_default fails, acl_access and acl_default will be released
simultaneously. However, acl_access will still retain a pointer pointing
to the released posix_acl, which will trigger a WARNING in
nfs3svc_release_getacl like this:

------------[ cut here ]------------
refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free.
WARNING: CPU: 26 PID: 3199 at lib/refcount.c:28
refcount_warn_saturate+0xb5/0x170
Modules linked in:
CPU: 26 UID: 0 PID: 3199 Comm: nfsd Not tainted
6.12.0-rc6-00079-g04ae226af01f-dirty #8
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS
1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xb5/0x170
Code: cc cc 0f b6 1d b3 20 a5 03 80 fb 01 0f 87 65 48 d8 00 83 e3 01 75
e4 48 c7 c7 c0 3b 9b 85 c6 05 97 20 a5 03 01 e8 fb 3e 30 ff <0f> 0b eb
cd 0f b6 1d 8a3
RSP: 0018:ffffc90008637cd8 EFLAGS: 00010282
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffff83904fde
RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffff88871ed36380
RBP: ffff888158beeb40 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: fffff520010c6f56
R10: ffffc90008637ab7 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 0000000000000001
R13: ffff888140e77400 R14: ffff888140e77408 R15: ffffffff858b42c0
FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88871ed00000(0000)
knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000562384d32158 CR3: 000000055cc6a000 CR4: 00000000000006f0
DR0: 00000...

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-21796

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux, Linux

Product: Linux, Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.02% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 1.85% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-03-27 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21796
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2e59b2b68782519560b3d6a41dd66a3d01a01cd3
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/55d947315fb5f67a35e4e1d3e01bb886b9c6decf
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f8d871523142f7895f250a856f8c4a4181614510
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1fd94884174bd20beb1773990fd3b1aa877688d9
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7faf14a7b0366f153284db0ad3347c457ea70136

Timeline