CVE-2025-21777 | ring-buffer: Validate the persistent meta data subbuf array

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ring-buffer: Validate the persistent meta data subbuf array The meta data for a mapped ring buffer contains an array of indexes of all the subbuffers. The first entry is the reader page, and the rest of the entries lay out the order of the subbuffers in how the ring buffer link list is to be created. The validator currently makes sure that all the entries are within the range of 0 and nr_subbufs. But it does not check if there are any duplicates. While working on the ring buffer, I corrupted this array, where I added duplicates. The validator did not catch it and created the ring buffer link list on top of it. Luckily, the corruption was only that the reader page was also in the writer path and only presented corrupted data but did not crash the kernel. But if there were duplicates in the writer side, then it could corrupt the ring buffer link list and cause a crash. Create a bitmask array with the size of the number of subbuffers. Then clear it. When walking through the subbuf array checking to see if the entries are within the range, test if its bit is already set in the subbuf_mask. If it is, then there is duplicates and fail the validation. If not, set the corresponding bit and continue.

Published: 2025-02-27 Last update: 2025-10-28 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21777 is rated Low Risk (31.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). 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-2025-21777

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 2026-04-07 0.04% 0.09% +0.05%
2 2025-02-27 0.04%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21777

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-2025-21777

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21777

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-21777 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-2025-21777
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21777
suse medium CVE-2025-21777 severity moderate: SUSE including 52 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 259 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 233, Fixed 26. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21777/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-21777 medium priority: Ubuntu including 128 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1024 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 702, ignored 146, not-affected 114, released 62. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21777

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21777

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.12, < 6.12.16 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-21777

cvelogic Threat Intelligence