Description

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

ax25: rcu protect dev->ax25_ptr

syzbot found a lockdep issue [1].

We should remove ax25 RTNL dependency in ax25_setsockopt()

This should also fix a variety of possible UAF in ax25.

[1]

WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
6.13.0-rc3-syzkaller-00762-g9268abe611b0 #0 Not tainted
------------------------------------------------------
syz.5.1818/12806 is trying to acquire lock:
ffffffff8fcb3988 (rtnl_mutex){+.+.}-{4:4}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0xa55/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:680

but task is already holding lock:
ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline]
ffff8880617ac258 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}, at: ax25_setsockopt+0x209/0xe90 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:574

which lock already depends on the new lock.

the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:

-> #1 (sk_lock-AF_AX25){+.+.}-{0:0}:
lock_acquire+0x1ed/0x550 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5849
lock_sock_nested+0x48/0x100 net/core/sock.c:3642
lock_sock include/net/sock.h:1618 [inline]
ax25_kill_by_device net/ax25/af_ax25.c:101 [inline]
ax25_device_event+0x24d/0x580 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:146
notifier_call_chain+0x1a5/0x3f0 kernel/notifier.c:85
__dev_notify_flags+0x207/0x400
dev_change_flags+0xf0/0x1a0 net/core/dev.c:9026
dev_ifsioc+0x7c8/0xe70 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:563
dev_ioctl+0x719/0x1340 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:82...

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-21812

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux, Linux

Product: Linux, Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.02% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 1.87% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-03-28 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21812
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2802ed4ced27ebd474828fc67ffd7d66f11e3605
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7705d8a7f2c26c80973c81093db07c6022b2b30e
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8937f5e38a218531dce2a89fae60e3adcc2311e1
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c2531db6de3c95551be58878f859c6a053b7eb2e
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95fc45d1dea8e1253f8ec58abc5befb71553d666

Timeline