Linux Kernel up to 6.12.28/6.14.6/6.15-rc5 virtnet_xsk_pool_enable memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.28/6.14.6/6.15-rc5 and classified as critical. This affects the function virtnet_xsk_pool_enable. Such manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2025-37955. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.28/6.14.6/6.15-rc5 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function virtnet_xsk_pool_enable. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: virtio-net: free xsk_buffs on error in virtnet_xsk_pool_enable() The selftests added to our CI by Bui Quang Minh recently reveals that there is a mem leak on the error path of virtnet_xsk_pool_enable(): unreferenced object 0xffff88800a68a000 (size 2048): comm "xdp_helper", pid 318, jiffies 4294692778 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 0): __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x402/0x570 virtnet_xsk_pool_enable+0x293/0x6a0 (drivers/net/virtio_net.c:5882) xp_assign_dev+0x369/0x670 (net/xdp/xsk_buff_pool.c:226) xsk_bind+0x6a5/0x1ae0 __sys_bind+0x15e/0x230 __x64_sys_bind+0x72/0xb0 do_syscall_64+0xc1/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-37955 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 242347 (Oracle Linux 9 : Unbreakable Enterprise kernel (ELSA-2025-20480)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.29, 6.14.7 or 6.15-rc6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 94a6f6c204abb2b2dcd2ce287536cc924469cfb5/ba6917810bb4a5a32661fa941717399052b3f0d9/4397684a292a71fbc1e815c3e283f7490ddce5ae 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 (242347) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1114). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.14.4
• 6.14.5
• 6.14.6
• 6.15-rc1
• 6.15-rc2
• 6.15-rc3
• 6.15-rc4
• 6.15-rc5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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