CVE-2025-21908 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: NFS: fix nfs_release_folio() to not deadlock via kcompactd writeback Add PF_KCOMPACTD flag and current_is_kcompactd() helper to check for it so nfs_release_folio() can skip calling nfs_wb_folio() from kcompactd. Otherwise NFS can deadlock waiting for kcompactd enduced writeback which recurses back to NFS (which triggers writeback to NFSD via NFS loopback mount on the same host, NFSD blocks waiting for XFS's call to __filemap_get_folio): 6070.550357] INFO: task kcompactd0:58 blocked for more than 4435 seconds. {--- [58] "kcompactd0" [<0>] folio_wait_bit+0xe8/0x200 [<0>] folio_wait_writeback+0x2b/0x80 [<0>] nfs_wb_folio+0x80/0x1b0 [nfs] [<0>] nfs_release_folio+0x68/0x130 [nfs] [<0>] split_huge_page_to_list_to_order+0x362/0x840 [<0>] migrate_pages_batch+0x43d/0xb90 [<0>] migrate_pages_sync+0x9a/0x240 [<0>] migrate_pages+0x93c/0x9f0 [<0>] compact_zone+0x8e2/0x1030 [<0>] compact_node+0xdb/0x120 [<0>] kcompactd+0x121/0x2e0 [<0>] kthread+0xcf/0x100 [<0>] ret_from_fork+0x31/0x40 [<0>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 ---} [[email protected]: fix build]

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.01%	0.12%	+0.11%
2	2026-05-10	0.05%	0.01%	-0.04%
3	2026-01-26	—	0.05%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.01%

0.12%

+0.11%

2026-05-10

0.05%

0.01%

-0.04%

2026-01-26

—

0.05%

—

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]
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	134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

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]

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

134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21908

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	unimportant	CVE-2025-21908 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-2025-21908
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21908
`suse`	medium	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21908/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2025-21908 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 154, released 138, needed 75, not-affected 39.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21908

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21908

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.3, < 6.6.83	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.7, < 6.12.19	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.13, < 6.13.7	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::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.14	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc5::::::

References for CVE-2025-21908

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5ae31c54cff745832b9bd5b32e71f3d1b607cd1e	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8253ff29edcb429a9a6c75710941c6a16a9a34b1	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab0727d6e2196682351c25c1dd112136f6991f11	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ce6d9c1c2b5cc785016faa11b48b6cd317eb367e	Patch

URL

CVE-2025-21908 | NFS: fix nfs_release_folio() to not deadlock via kcompactd writeback

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-21908

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21908

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-21908

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21908

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21908

References for CVE-2025-21908