Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2025-21649 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 11th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-2598
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: hns3: fix kernel crash when 1588 is sent on HIP08 devices Currently, HIP08 devices does not register the ptp devices, so the hdev->ptp is NULL. But the tx process…
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would still try to set hardware time stamp info with SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP flag and cause a kernel crash. [ 128.087798] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000018 ... [ 128.280251] pc : hclge_ptp_set_tx_info+0x2c/0x140 [hclge] [ 128.286600] lr : hclge_ptp_set_tx_info+0x20/0x140 [hclge] [ 128.292938] sp : ffff800059b93140 [ 128.297200] x29: ffff800059b93140 x28: 0000000000003280 [ 128.303455] x27: ffff800020d48280 x26: ffff0cb9dc814080 [ 128.309715] x25: ffff0cb9cde93fa0 x24: 0000000000000001 [ 128.315969] x23: 0000000000000000 x22: 0000000000000194 [ 128.322219] x21: ffff0cd94f986000 x20: 0000000000000000 [ 128.328462] x19: ffff0cb9d2a166c0 x18: 0000000000000000 [ 128.334698] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffffcf1fc523ed24 [ 128.340934] x15: 0000ffffd530a518 x14: 0000000000000000 [ 128.347162] x13: ffff0cd6bdb31310 x12: 0000000000000368 [ 128.353388] x11: ffff0cb9cfbc7070 x10: ffff2cf55dd11e02 [ 128.359606] x9 : ffffcf1f85a212b4 x8 : ffff0cd7cf27dab0 [ 128.365831] x7 : 0000000000000a20 x6 : ffff0cd7cf27d000 [ 128.372040] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 000000000000ffff [ 128.378243] x3 : 0000000000000400 x2 : ffffcf1f85a21294 [ 128.384437] x1 : ffff0cb9db520080 x0 : ffff0cb9db500080 [ 128.390626] Call trace: [ 128.393964] hclge_ptp_set_tx_info+0x2c/0x140 [hclge] [ 128.399893] hns3_nic_net_xmit+0x39c/0x4c4 [hns3] [ 128.405468] xmit_one.constprop.0+0xc4/0x200 [ 128.410600] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x54/0xf0 [ 128.415556] sch_direct_xmit+0xe8/0x634 [ 128.420246] __dev_queue_xmit+0x224/0xc70 [ 128.425101] dev_queue_xmit+0x1c/0x40 [ 128.429608] ovs_vport_send+0xac/0x1a0 [openvswitch] [ 128.435409] do_output+0x60/0x17c [openvswitch] [ 128.440770] do_execute_actions+0x898/0x8c4 [openvswitch] [ 128.446993] ovs_execute_actions+0x64/0xf0 [openvswitch] [ 128.453129] ovs_dp_process_packet+0xa0/0x224 [openvswitch] [ 128.459530] ovs_vport_receive+0x7c/0xfc [openvswitch] [ 128.465497] internal_dev_xmit+0x34/0xb0 [openvswitch] [ 128.471460] xmit_one.constprop.0+0xc4/0x200 [ 128.476561] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x54/0xf0 [ 128.481489] __dev_queue_xmit+0x968/0xc70 [ 128.486330] dev_queue_xmit+0x1c/0x40 [ 128.490856] ip_finish_output2+0x250/0x570 [ 128.495810] __ip_finish_output+0x170/0x1e0 [ 128.500832] ip_finish_output+0x3c/0xf0 [ 128.505504] ip_output+0xbc/0x160 [ 128.509654] ip_send_skb+0x58/0xd4 [ 128.513892] udp_send_skb+0x12c/0x354 [ 128.518387] udp_sendmsg+0x7a8/0x9c0 [ 128.522793] inet_sendmsg+0x4c/0x8c [ 128.527116] __sock_sendmsg+0x48/0x80 [ 128.531609] __sys_sendto+0x124/0x164 [ 128.536099] __arm64_sys_sendto+0x30/0x5c [ 128.540935] invoke_syscall+0x50/0x130 [ 128.545508] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x10c/0x124 [ 128.551205] do_el0_svc+0x34/0xdc [ 128.555347] el0_svc+0x20/0x30 [ 128.559227] el0_sync_handler+0xb8/0xc0 [ 128.563883] el0_sync+0x160/0x180
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.
Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.
Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.