Linux Kernel up to 6.1.128/6.6.75/6.12.12/6.13.1 use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.128/6.6.75/6.12.12/6.13.1. This vulnerability affects unknown code. This manipulation causes use after free. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-21718. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.128/6.6.75/6.12.12/6.13.1 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown processing. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: rose: fix timer races against user threads Rose timers only acquire the socket spinlock, without checking if the socket is owned by one user thread. Add a check and rearm the timers if needed. BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in rose_timer_expiry+0x31d/0x360 net/rose/rose_timer.c:174 Read of size 2 at addr ffff88802f09b82a by task swapper/0/0 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc5-syzkaller-00172-gd1bf27c4e176 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0x169/0x550 mm/kasan/report.c:489 kasan_report+0x143/0x180 mm/kasan/report.c:602 rose_timer_expiry+0x31d/0x360 net/rose/rose_timer.c:174 call_timer_fn+0x187/0x650 kernel/time/timer.c:1793 expire_timers kernel/time/timer.c:1844 [inline] __run_timers kernel/time/timer.c:2418 [inline] __run_timer_base+0x66a/0x8e0 kernel/time/timer.c:2430 run_timer_base kernel/time/timer.c:2439 [inline] run_timer_softirq+0xb7/0x170 kernel/time/timer.c:2449 handle_softirqs+0x2d4/0x9b0 kernel/softirq.c:561 __do_softirq kernel/softirq.c:595 [inline] invoke_softirq kernel/softirq.c:435 [inline] __irq_exit_rcu+0xf7/0x220 kernel/softirq.c:662 irq_exit_rcu+0x9/0x30 kernel/softirq.c:678 instr_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt arch/x86/kernel/apic/apic.c:1049 [inline] sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0xa6/0xc0 arch/x86/kernel/apic/apic.c:1049

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21718 since 12/29/2024. The exploitation appears to be easy. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 05/25/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 231856 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-21718), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.129, 6.6.76, 6.12.13, 6.13.2 or 6.14-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f55c88e3ca5939a6a8a329024aed8f3d98eea8e4/51c128ba038cf1b79d605cbee325919b45ab95a5/1992fb261c90e9827cf5dc3115d89bb0853252c9/58051a284ac18a3bb815aac6289a679903ddcc3f/5de7665e0a0746b5ad7943554b34db8f8614a196 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 (231856) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0453). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Siemens SIMATIC S7
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Avamar
• Red Hat OpenShift
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM DataPower Gateway
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• Dell PowerScale OneFS
• Dell ECS

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.128
• 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

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CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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