CVE-2025-21643 | netfs: Fix kernel async DIO

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix kernel async DIO Netfslib needs to be able to handle kernel-initiated asynchronous DIO that is supplied with a bio_vec[] array. Currently, because of the async flag, this gets passed to netfs_extract_user_iter() which throws a warning and fails because it only handles IOVEC and UBUF iterators. This can be triggered through a combination of cifs and a loopback blockdev with something like: mount //my/cifs/share /foo dd if=/dev/zero of=/foo/m0 bs=4K count=1K losetup --sector-size 4096 --direct-io=on /dev/loop2046 /foo/m0 echo hello >/dev/loop2046 This causes the following to appear in syslog: WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 109 at fs/netfs/iterator.c:50 netfs_extract_user_iter+0x170/0x250 [netfs] and the write to fail. Fix this by removing the check in netfs_unbuffered_write_iter_locked() that causes async kernel DIO writes to be handled as userspace writes. Note that this change relies on the kernel caller maintaining the existence of the bio_vec array (or kvec[] or folio_queue) until the op is complete.

Published: 2025-01-19 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21643 is rated Low Risk (25.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.20%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-21643

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.03% 0.20% +0.17%
2 2025-10-17 0.05% 0.03% -0.02%
3 2025-10-15 0.05%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21643

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-21643

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21643

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-21643 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-21643
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21643
suse medium CVE-2025-21643 severity moderate: SUSE including 52 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 268 product×package rows across 46 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5, … (46 product lines)): Known Not Affected 242, Fixed 26. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21643/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-21643 medium priority: Ubuntu including 150 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1487 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1097, ignored 147, released 128, not-affected 115. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21643

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21643

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.8, < 6.12.10 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-21643

cvelogic Threat Intelligence