Description

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

net: Remove RTNL dance for SIOCBRADDIF and SIOCBRDELIF.

SIOCBRDELIF is passed to dev_ioctl() first and later forwarded to
br_ioctl_call(), which causes unnecessary RTNL dance and the splat
below [0] under RTNL pressure.

Let's say Thread A is trying to detach a device from a bridge and
Thread B is trying to remove the bridge.

In dev_ioctl(), Thread A bumps the bridge device's refcnt by
netdev_hold() and releases RTNL because the following br_ioctl_call()
also re-acquires RTNL.

In the race window, Thread B could acquire RTNL and try to remove
the bridge device. Then, rtnl_unlock() by Thread B will release RTNL
and wait for netdev_put() by Thread A.

Thread A, however, must hold RTNL after the unlock in dev_ifsioc(),
which may take long under RTNL pressure, resulting in the splat by
Thread B.

Thread A (SIOCBRDELIF) Thread B (SIOCBRDELBR)
---------------------- ----------------------
sock_ioctl sock_ioctl
`- sock_do_ioctl `- br_ioctl_call
`- dev_ioctl `- br_ioctl_stub
|- rtnl_lock |
|- dev_ifsioc '
' |- dev = __dev_get_by_name(...)
|- netdev_hold(dev, ...) .
/ |- rtnl_unlock ------. |
| |- br_ioctl_call `---> |- rtnl_lock
Race | | `- br_ioctl_stub |- br_del_bridge
Window | | ...

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-22111

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux

Product: Linux, Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.02% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 3.26% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-04-20 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-22111
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00fe0ac64efd1f5373b3dd9f1f84b19235371e39
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ed3ba9b6e280e14cc3148c1b226ba453f02fa76c

Timeline