Linux Kernel up to 6.15-rc2 cma_netevent_work_handler null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.134/6.6.87/6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2. This affects the function cma_netevent_work_handler. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2025-37772. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.134/6.6.87/6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2. Affected is the function cma_netevent_work_handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RDMA/cma: Fix workqueue crash in cma_netevent_work_handler struct rdma_cm_id has member "struct work_struct net_work" that is reused for enqueuing cma_netevent_work_handler()s onto cma_wq. Below crash[1] can occur if more than one call to cma_netevent_callback() occurs in quick succession, which further enqueues cma_netevent_work_handler()s for the same rdma_cm_id, overwriting any previously queued work-item(s) that was just scheduled to run i.e. there is no guarantee the queued work item may run between two successive calls to cma_netevent_callback() and the 2nd INIT_WORK would overwrite the 1st work item (for the same rdma_cm_id), despite grabbing id_table_lock during enqueue. Also drgn analysis [2] indicates the work item was likely overwritten. Fix this by moving the INIT_WORK() to __rdma_create_id(), so that it doesn't race with any existing queue_work() or its worker thread. [1] Trimmed crash stack: ============================================= BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 kworker/u256:6 ... 6.12.0-0... Workqueue: cma_netevent_work_handler [rdma_cm] (rdma_cm) RIP: 0010:process_one_work+0xba/0x31a Call Trace: worker_thread+0x266/0x3a0 kthread+0xcf/0x100 ret_from_fork+0x31/0x50 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 ============================================= [2] drgn crash analysis: >>> trace = prog.crashed_thread().stack_trace() >>> trace (0) crash_setup_regs (./arch/x86/include/asm/kexec.h:111:15) (1) __crash_kexec (kernel/crash_core.c:122:4) (2) panic (kernel/panic.c:399:3) (3) oops_end (arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c:382:3) ... (8) process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3168:2) (9) process_scheduled_works (kernel/workqueue.c:3310:3) (10) worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3391:4) (11) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:389:9) Line workqueue.c:3168 for this kernel version is in process_one_work(): 3168 strscpy(worker->desc, pwq->wq->name, WORKER_DESC_LEN); >>> trace[8]["work"] *(struct work_struct *)0xffff92577d0a21d8 = { .data = (atomic_long_t){ .counter = (s64)536870912, <=== Note }, .entry = (struct list_head){ .next = (struct list_head *)0xffff924d075924c0, .prev = (struct list_head *)0xffff924d075924c0, }, .func = (work_func_t)cma_netevent_work_handler+0x0 = 0xffffffffc2cec280, } Suspicion is that pwq is NULL: >>> trace[8]["pwq"] (struct pool_workqueue *)<absent> In process_one_work(), pwq is assigned from: struct pool_workqueue *pwq = get_work_pwq(work); and get_work_pwq() is: static struct pool_workqueue *get_work_pwq(struct work_struct *work) { unsigned long data = atomic_long_read(&work->data); if (data & WORK_STRUCT_PWQ) return work_struct_pwq(data); else return NULL; } WORK_STRUCT_PWQ is 0x4: >>> print(repr(prog['WORK_STRUCT_PWQ'])) Object(prog, 'enum work_flags', value=4) But work->data is 536870912 which is 0x20000000. So, get_work_pwq() returns NULL and we crash in process_one_work(): 3168 strscpy(worker->desc, pwq->wq->name, WORKER_DESC_LEN); =============================================

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-37772 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 237504 (Debian dla-4193 : linux-config-6.1 - security update), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.135, 6.6.88, 6.12.25, 6.14.4 or 6.15-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 51003b2c872c63d28bcf5fbcc52cf7b05615f7b7/c2b169fc7a12665d8a675c1ff14bca1b9c63fb9a/d23fd7a539ac078df119707110686a5b226ee3bb/b172a4a0de254f1fcce7591833a9a63547c2f447/45f5dcdd049719fb999393b30679605f16ebce14 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 (237504) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0922). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM DataPower Gateway
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.1.134
• 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
• 6.6.80
• 6.6.81
• 6.6.82
• 6.6.83
• 6.6.84
• 6.6.85
• 6.6.86
• 6.6.87
• 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
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.15-rc1
• 6.15-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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