Linux Kernel up to 6.14-rc3 net_dm_monitor_start initialization

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as problematic has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.129/6.6.79/6.12.16/6.13.4/6.14-rc3. This impacts the function net_dm_monitor_start. This manipulation causes initialization. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-21862. There is no exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.129/6.6.79/6.12.16/6.13.4/6.14-rc3. Affected by this vulnerability is the function net_dm_monitor_start. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a initialization vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-665. The product does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used. The impact remains unknown. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drop_monitor: fix incorrect initialization order Syzkaller reports the following bug: BUG: spinlock bad magic on CPU#1, syz-executor.0/7995 lock: 0xffff88805303f3e0, .magic: 00000000, .owner: /-1, .owner_cpu: 0 CPU: 1 PID: 7995 Comm: syz-executor.0 Tainted: G E 5.10.209+ #1 Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 11/12/2020 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:77 [inline] dump_stack+0x119/0x179 lib/dump_stack.c:118 debug_spin_lock_before kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:83 [inline] do_raw_spin_lock+0x1f6/0x270 kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:112 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:117 [inline] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x50/0x70 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:159 reset_per_cpu_data+0xe6/0x240 [drop_monitor] net_dm_cmd_trace+0x43d/0x17a0 [drop_monitor] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x22f/0x330 net/netlink/genetlink.c:739 genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:783 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x341/0x5a0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:800 netlink_rcv_skb+0x14d/0x440 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2497 genl_rcv+0x29/0x40 net/netlink/genetlink.c:811 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1322 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x54b/0x800 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1348 netlink_sendmsg+0x914/0xe00 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1916 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:651 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x157/0x190 net/socket.c:663 ____sys_sendmsg+0x712/0x870 net/socket.c:2378 ___sys_sendmsg+0xf8/0x170 net/socket.c:2432 __sys_sendmsg+0xea/0x1b0 net/socket.c:2461 do_syscall_64+0x30/0x40 arch/x86/entry/common.c:46 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x62/0xc7 RIP: 0033:0x7f3f9815aee9 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b0 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007f3f972bf0c8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f3f9826d050 RCX: 00007f3f9815aee9 RDX: 0000000020000000 RSI: 0000000020001300 RDI: 0000000000000007 RBP: 00007f3f981b63bd R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 000000000000006e R14: 00007f3f9826d050 R15: 00007ffe01ee6768 If drop_monitor is built as a kernel module, syzkaller may have time to send a netlink NET_DM_CMD_START message during the module loading. This will call the net_dm_monitor_start() function that uses a spinlock that has not yet been initialized. To fix this, let's place resource initialization above the registration of a generic netlink family. Found by InfoTeCS on behalf of Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21862 since 12/29/2024. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 234058 (SUSE SLES15 / openSUSE 15 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:1178-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.130, 6.6.80, 6.12.17, 6.13.5 or 6.14-rc4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch fcfc00bfec7bb6661074cb21356d05a4c9470a3c/0efa6c42f81c60d8f72ba7f5ed8d4fec8c526282/b7859e8643e75619b2705b4fcac93ffd94d72b4a/219a47d0e6195bd202f22855e35f25bd15bc4d58/07b598c0e6f06a0f254c88dafb4ad50f8a8c6eea 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 (234058) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0545). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality 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
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.129
• 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
• 6.6.76
• 6.6.77
• 6.6.78
• 6.6.79
• 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
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.13.0
• 6.13.1
• 6.13.2
• 6.13.3
• 6.13.4
• 6.14-rc1
• 6.14-rc2
• 6.14-rc3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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