Description

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

sch_htb: make htb_deactivate() idempotent

Alan reported a NULL pointer dereference in htb_next_rb_node()
after we made htb_qlen_notify() idempotent.

It turns out in the following case it introduced some regression:

htb_dequeue_tree():
|-> fq_codel_dequeue()
|-> qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog()
|-> htb_qlen_notify()
|-> htb_deactivate()
|-> htb_next_rb_node()
|-> htb_deactivate()

For htb_next_rb_node(), after calling the 1st htb_deactivate(), the
clprio[prio]->ptr could be already set to NULL, which means
htb_next_rb_node() is vulnerable here.

For htb_deactivate(), although we checked qlen before calling it, in
case of qlen==0 after qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog(), we may call it again
which triggers the warning inside.

To fix the issues here, we need to:

1) Make htb_deactivate() idempotent, that is, simply return if we
already call it before.
2) Make htb_next_rb_node() safe against ptr==NULL.

Many thanks to Alan for testing and for the reproducer.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-37953

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux

Product: Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.06% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 17.55% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-06-18 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37953
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c928dd4f6bf0c25c72b11824a1e9ac9bd37296a0
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/31ff70ad39485698cf779f2078132d80b57f6c07
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/98cd7ed92753090a714f0802d4434314526fe61d
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4792b9e38d2f61b07eac72f10909fa76130314b
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3769478610135e82b262640252d90f6efb05be71

Timeline