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.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21792 is rated Low Risk (24.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 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.
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 | 2025-11-21 | 0.06% | 0.03% | -0.03% |
| 2 | 2025-11-18 | 0.04% | 0.06% | +0.01% |
| 3 | 2025-02-27 | — | 0.04% | — |
Full EPSS history (3 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2025-21792 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5, open 1. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-21792 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21792 |
suse
|
medium | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21792/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-21792 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 153, released 135, needed 74, not-affected 44. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21792 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 4.14.277, < 4.15 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 4.19.240, < 4.20 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.4.190, < 5.5 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.10.112, < 5.11 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.15.35, < 5.16 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.17.2, < 6.1.129 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.2, < 6.6.79 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.7, < 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:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/470bda72fda0fcf54300466d70ce2de62f7835d2 | Mailing List Patch |
| https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90056ece99966182dc0e367f3fd2afab46ada847 | Mailing List Patch |
| https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/94a0de224ed52eb2ecd4f4cb1b937b674c9fb955 | Mailing List Patch |
| https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b58f7ca86a7b8e480c06e30c5163c5d2f4e24023 | Mailing List Patch |
| https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bca0902e61731a75fc4860c8720168d9f1bae3b6 | Mailing List Patch |
| https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00028.html |