In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: avoid holding freeze_mutex during mmap operation We use map->freeze_mutex to prevent races between map_freeze() and memory mapping BPF map contents with writable permissions. The way we naively do this means we'll hold freeze_mutex for entire duration of all the mm and VMA manipulations, which is completely unnecessary. This can potentially also lead to deadlocks, as reported by syzbot in [0]. So, instead, hold freeze_mutex only during writeability checks, bump (proactively) "write active" count for the map, unlock the mutex and proceed with mmap logic. And only if something went wrong during mmap logic, then undo that "write active" counter increment. [0] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/[email protected]/
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21853 is rated Low Risk (24/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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 | 2026-04-20 | 0.05% | 0.02% | -0.03% |
| 2 | 2025-11-04 | 0.04% | 0.05% | +0.01% |
| 3 | 2025-03-13 | — | 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] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2025-21853 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 6. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-21853 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21853 |
suse
|
medium | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21853/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-21853 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, released 167, ignored 150, not-affected 88, needed 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21853 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 5.5, < 6.6.80 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.7, < 6.12.17 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.13, < 6.13.5 | 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:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.14 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |