CVE-2025-21751 | net/mlx5: HWS, change error flow on matcher disconnect

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: HWS, change error flow on matcher disconnect Currently, when firmware failure occurs during matcher disconnect flow, the error flow of the function reconnects the matcher back and returns an error, which continues running the calling function and eventually frees the matcher that is being disconnected. This leads to a case where we have a freed matcher on the matchers list, which in turn leads to use-after-free and eventual crash. This patch fixes that by not trying to reconnect the matcher back when some FW command fails during disconnect. Note that we're dealing here with FW error. We can't overcome this problem. This might lead to bad steering state (e.g. wrong connection between matchers), and will also lead to resource leakage, as it is the case with any other error handling during resource destruction. However, the goal here is to allow the driver to continue and not crash the machine with use-after-free error.

Published: 2025-02-26 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21751 is rated Low Risk (35.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.21%). 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-2025-21751

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 0.02% 0.21% +0.19%
2 2026-05-08 0.07% 0.02% -0.05%
3 2026-04-07 0.07%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21751

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-21751

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21751

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-21751 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-2025-21751
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21751
suse medium CVE-2025-21751 severity moderate: SUSE including 64 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 283 product×package rows across 50 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5, … (50 product lines)): Known Not Affected 245, Fixed 38. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21751/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-21751 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 169, needed 108, released 92, not-affected 37. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21751

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21751

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel < 6.13.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-21751

cvelogic Threat Intelligence