CVE-2025-21792

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ax25: Fix refcount leak caused by setting SO_BINDTODEVICE sockopt

If an AX25 device is bound to a socket by setting the SO_BINDTODEVICE
socket option, a refcount leak will occur in ax25_release().

Commit 9fd75b66b8f6 ("ax25: Fix refcount leaks caused by ax25_cb_del()")
added decrement of device refcounts in ax25_release(). In order for that
to work correctly the refcounts must already be incremented when the
device is bound to the socket. An AX25 device can be bound to a socket
by either calling ax25_bind() or setting SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option.
In both cases the refcounts should be incremented, but in fact it is done
only in ax25_bind().

This bug leads to the following issue reported by Syzkaller:

================================================================
refcount_t: decrement hit 0; leaking memory.
WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 5932 at lib/refcount.c:31 refcount_warn_saturate+0x1ed/0x210 lib/refcount.c:31
Modules linked in:
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5932 Comm: syz-executor424 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc4-syzkaller-00110-g4099a71718b0 #0
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x1ed/0x210 lib/refcount.c:31
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:336 [inline]
 refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:351 [inline]
 ref_tracker_free+0x710/0x820 lib/ref_tracker.c:236
 netdev_tracker_free include/linux/netdevice.h:4156 [inline]
 netdev_put include/linux/netdevice.h:4173 [inline]
 netdev_put include/linux/netdevice.h:4169 [inline]
 ax25_release+0x33f/0xa10 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:1069
 __sock_release+0xb0/0x270 net/socket.c:640
 sock_close+0x1c/0x30 net/socket.c:1408
 ...
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xcd/0x250 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
 ...
 </TASK>
================================================================

Fix the implementation of ax25_setsockopt() by adding increment of
refcounts for the new device bound, and decrement of refcounts for
the old unbound device.
ProviderTypeBase ScoreAtk. VectorAtk. ComplexityPriv. RequiredVector
NISTNIST
5.5 MEDIUM
LOCAL
LOW
LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
LinuxCNA
---
---
Base Score
CVSS 3.x
EPSS Score
Percentile: 2%
VendorProductVersion
linuxlinux_kernel
4.14.277 ≤
𝑥
< 4.15
linuxlinux_kernel
4.19.240 ≤
𝑥
< 4.20
linuxlinux_kernel
5.4.190 ≤
𝑥
< 5.5
linuxlinux_kernel
5.10.112 ≤
𝑥
< 5.11
linuxlinux_kernel
5.15.35 ≤
𝑥
< 5.16
linuxlinux_kernel
5.17.2 ≤
𝑥
< 6.1.129
linuxlinux_kernel
6.2 ≤
𝑥
< 6.6.79
linuxlinux_kernel
6.7 ≤
𝑥
< 6.12.16
linuxlinux_kernel
6.13 ≤
𝑥
< 6.13.4
linuxlinux_kernel
6.14:rc1
linuxlinux_kernel
6.14:rc2
𝑥
= Vulnerable software versions
Debian logo
Debian Releases
Debian Product
Codename
linux
bullseye
vulnerable
bullseye (security)
vulnerable
bookworm
6.1.129-1
fixed
bookworm (security)
vulnerable
trixie
6.12.20-1
fixed
sid
6.12.21-1
fixed
linux-6.1
bullseye (security)
6.1.129-1~deb11u1
fixed