Linux Kernel up to 6.6.75/6.12.12/6.13.1 kernel/locking/mutex.c information disclosure

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.75/6.12.12/6.13.1. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the file kernel/locking/mutex.c. This manipulation causes information disclosure. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2025-21701. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.75/6.12.12/6.13.1 and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown processing of the file kernel/locking/mutex.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a information disclosure vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-200. The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: avoid race between device unregistration and ethnl ops The following trace can be seen if a device is being unregistered while its number of channels are being modified. DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(lock->magic != lock) WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 3754 at kernel/locking/mutex.c:564 __mutex_lock+0xc8a/0x1120 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 3754 Comm: ethtool Not tainted 6.13.0-rc6+ #771 RIP: 0010:__mutex_lock+0xc8a/0x1120 Call Trace: ethtool_check_max_channel+0x1ea/0x880 ethnl_set_channels+0x3c3/0xb10 ethnl_default_set_doit+0x306/0x650 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x1e3/0x2c0 genl_rcv_msg+0x432/0x6f0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x13d/0x3b0 genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 netlink_unicast+0x42e/0x720 netlink_sendmsg+0x765/0xc20 __sys_sendto+0x3ac/0x420 __x64_sys_sendto+0xe0/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0x95/0x180 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e This is because unregister_netdevice_many_notify might run before the rtnl lock section of ethnl operations, eg. set_channels in the above example. In this example the rss lock would be destroyed by the device unregistration path before being used again, but in general running ethnl operations while dismantle has started is not a good idea. Fix this by denying any operation on devices being unregistered. A check was already there in ethnl_ops_begin, but not wide enough. Note that the same issue cannot be seen on the ioctl version (__dev_ethtool) because the device reference is retrieved from within the rtnl lock section there. Once dismantle started, the net device is unlisted and no reference will be found.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21701 since 12/29/2024. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1592 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 233595 (Debian dla-4102 : linux-config-6.1 - security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.76, 6.12.13, 6.13.2 or 6.14-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2f29127e94ae9fdc7497331003d6860e9551cdf3/b382ab9b885cbb665e0e70a727f101c981b4edf3/4dc880245f9b529fa8f476b5553c799d2848b47b/12e070eb6964b341b41677fd260af5a305316a1f is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (233595), EUVD (EUVD-2025-2650) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0378). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Siemens SIMATIC S7
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.6.59
• 6.6.60
• 6.6.61
• 6.6.62
• 6.6.63
• 6.6.64
• 6.6.65
• 6.6.66
• 6.6.67
• 6.6.68
• 6.6.69
• 6.6.70
• 6.6.71
• 6.6.72
• 6.6.73
• 6.6.74
• 6.6.75
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.13.0
• 6.13.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

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