CVE-2025-21840 | thermal/netlink: Prevent userspace segmentation fault by adjusting UAPI header

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: thermal/netlink: Prevent userspace segmentation fault by adjusting UAPI header The intel-lpmd tool [1], which uses the THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_CPU_CAPABILITY attribute to receive HFI events from kernel space, encounters a segmentation fault after commit 1773572863c4 ("thermal: netlink: Add the commands and the events for the thresholds"). The issue arises because the THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_CPU_CAPABILITY raw value was changed while intel_lpmd still uses the old value. Although intel_lpmd can be updated to check the THERMAL_GENL_VERSION and use the appropriate THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_CPU_CAPABILITY value, the commit itself is questionable. The commit introduced a new element in the middle of enum thermal_genl_attr, which affects many existing attributes and introduces potential risks and unnecessary maintenance burdens for userspace thermal netlink event users. Solve the issue by moving the newly introduced THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_TZ_PREV_TEMP attribute to the end of the enum thermal_genl_attr. This ensures that all existing thermal generic netlink attributes remain unaffected. [ rjw: Subject edits ]

Published: 2025-03-07 Last update: 2025-10-29 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21840 is rated Low Risk (29.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.07%). 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-2025-21840

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 2026-04-15 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
2 2025-03-08 0.04%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21840

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-2025-21840

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21840

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-21840 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-2025-21840
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21840
suse medium CVE-2025-21840 severity moderate: SUSE including 26 source package names (cluster-md-kmp-default, dlm-kmp-default, …), 198 product×package rows across 40 product lines (SLES-LTSS-TERADATA 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 12 SP5, … (40 product lines)): Known Not Affected 198. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21840/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-21840 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 115, released 61. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21840

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21840

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
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-2025-21840

cvelogic Threat Intelligence