CVE-2025-21981 [Medium] | Information Disclosure in Linux Kernel

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ice: fix memory leak in aRFS after reset Fix aRFS (accelerated Receive Flow Steering) structures memory leak by adding a checker to verify if aRFS memory is already allocated while configuring VSI. aRFS objects are allocated in two cases: - as part of VSI initialization (at probe), and - as part of reset handling However, VSI reconfiguration executed during reset involves memory allocation one more time, without prior releasing already allocated resources. This led to the memory leak with the following signature: [root@os-delivery ~]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak unreferenced object 0xff3c1ca7252e6000 (size 8192): comm "kworker/0:0", pid 8, jiffies 4296833052 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 0): [<ffffffff991ec485>] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x275/0x340 [<ffffffffc0a6e06a>] ice_init_arfs+0x3a/0xe0 [ice] [<ffffffffc09f1027>] ice_vsi_cfg_def+0x607/0x850 [ice] [<ffffffffc09f244b>] ice_vsi_setup+0x5b/0x130 [ice] [<ffffffffc09c2131>] ice_init+0x1c1/0x460 [ice] [<ffffffffc09c64af>] ice_probe+0x2af/0x520 [ice] [<ffffffff994fbcd3>] local_pci_probe+0x43/0xa0 [<ffffffff98f07103>] work_for_cpu_fn+0x13/0x20 [<ffffffff98f0b6d9>] process_one_work+0x179/0x390 [<ffffffff98f0c1e9>] worker_thread+0x239/0x340 [<ffffffff98f14abc>] kthread+0xcc/0x100 [<ffffffff98e45a6d>] ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x50 [<ffffffff98e083ba>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 ...

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-06-15	0.03%	0.16%	+0.13%
2	2026-05-10	0.11%	0.03%	-0.08%
3	2026-01-26	—	0.11%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-06-15

0.03%

0.16%

+0.13%

2026-05-10

0.11%

0.03%

-0.08%

2026-01-26

—

0.11%

—

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-2025-21981

vendor	priority	summary	link
`debian`	not yet assigned	CVE-2025-21981 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-2025-21981
`redhat`	low	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21981
`suse`	medium	—	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21981/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2025-21981 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 170, ignored 150, not-affected 85, needed 1.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21981

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21981

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
linux	linux_kernel	>= 5.8, < 6.1.132	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.2, < 6.6.84	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.7, < 6.12.20	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel::::::::
linux	linux_kernel	>= 6.13, < 6.13.8	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::::::
linux	linux_kernel	6.14	cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc6::::::

References for CVE-2025-21981

URL	Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/23d97f18901ef5e4e264e3b1777fe65c760186b5	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3b27e6e10a32589fcd293b8933ab6de9387a460e	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5d30d256661fc11b6e73fac6c3783a702e1006a3	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78f3d64b30210c0e521c59357431aca14024cb79	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e6902101f34f098af59b0d1d8cf90c4124c02c6a	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ef2bc94059836a115430a6ad9d2838b0b34dc8f5	Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fcbacc47d16306c87ad1b820b7a575f6e9eae58b	Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00045.html

URL

CVE-2025-21981 | ice: fix memory leak in aRFS after reset

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-21981

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21981

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-21981

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21981

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21981

References for CVE-2025-21981