Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-21746

Race Condition in Linux Kernel 6.5 – 6.6.80

Published
27 February 2025
Modified
06 April 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0015 4th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-21746 is a medium-severity Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CWE-367) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 4.7 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked at the 4th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SC-24 (Fail in Known State) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Input: synaptics - fix crash when enabling pass-through port When enabling a pass-through port an interrupt might come before psmouse driver binds to the pass-through port. However synaptics sub-driver tries…

more

to access psmouse instance presumably associated with the pass-through port to figure out if only 1 byte of response or entire protocol packet needs to be forwarded to the pass-through port and may crash if psmouse instance has not been attached to the port yet. Fix the crash by introducing open() and close() methods for the port and check if the port is open before trying to access psmouse instance. Because psmouse calls serio_open() only after attaching psmouse instance to serio port instance this prevents the potential crash.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-38217Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-53250Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-31678Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-52478Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-22060Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-21958Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-50234Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-50220Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-43882Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-52991Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.5 — 6.6.80 · 6.7 — 6.12.17 · 6.13 — 6.13.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • SC-24 Fail in Known State
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2
  • V17.2.6

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces the added open-state check before allowing access to the psmouse instance on the pass-through port, eliminating the TOCTOU window.

prevent

Requires validation of the serio port state prior to any interrupt-driven access, preventing use of an unbound psmouse instance.

prevent

Ensures the kernel driver fails in a known safe state rather than dereferencing an unattached psmouse instance and crashing.

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly include coding standards and reviews that prevent TOCTOU race conditions.

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.

none

Reliable, synchronized time across systems narrows the exploitable window in which a resource state can change between a security check and its use.

References