In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: keys: Fix UAF in key_put() Once a key's reference count has been reduced to 0, the garbage collector thread may destroy it at any time and so key_put() is not allowed to touch the key after that point. The most key_put() is normally allowed to do is to touch key_gc_work as that's a static global variable. However, in an effort to speed up the reclamation of quota, this is now done in key_put() once the key's usage is reduced to 0 - but now the code is looking at the key after the deadline, which is forbidden. Fix this by using a flag to indicate that a key can be gc'd now rather than looking at the key's refcount in the garbage collector.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21893 is rated Low Risk (36.4/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). 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 | 2026-05-09 | 0.05% | 0.05% | -0.00% |
| 2 | 2026-01-25 | 0.01% | 0.05% | +0.04% |
| 3 | 2025-04-01 | — | 0.01% | — |
Full EPSS history (3 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.8 | 3.1 | HIGH |
|
1.8 | 5.9 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
unimportant | CVE-2025-21893 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-2025-21893 |
redhat
|
medium | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21893 |
suse
|
medium | CVE-2025-21893 severity moderate: SUSE including 76 source package names (15.7.20.5.1:kernel-default-6.4.0-150700.53.3.1, cluster-md-kmp-default, …), 336 product×package rows across 86 product lines (Container suse/hpc/warewulf4-x86_64/sle-hpc-node, Image SLES15-SP7-Azure-3P, … (86 product lines)): Known Not Affected 185, Fixed 151. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21893/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-21893 medium priority: Ubuntu including 150 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1487 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1097, ignored 147, not-affected 144, released 99. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21893 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.10, < 6.12.21 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.13, < 6.13.9 | 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:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.14 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |