CVE-2025-21858
Published: 12 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-21858 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 3.5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Timely remediation through kernel patching directly eliminates the use-after-free vulnerability in the Geneve driver's geneve_find_dev() function.
Kernel memory protection mechanisms such as address space layout randomization, stack canaries, and slab allocators mitigate exploitation of the use-after-free during Geneve device configuration across network namespaces.
Enforcing least privilege by restricting CAP_NET_ADMIN capability prevents local attackers from creating and manipulating Geneve devices in different network namespaces required to trigger the vulnerability.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The use-after-free in the Linux kernel Geneve driver enables local attackers (with CAP_NET_ADMIN) to trigger arbitrary kernel memory read/write and code execution, directly mapping to exploitation for privilege escalation to kernel level.
NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: geneve: Fix use-after-free in geneve_find_dev(). syzkaller reported a use-after-free in geneve_find_dev() [0] without repro. geneve_configure() links struct geneve_dev.next to net_generic(net, geneve_net_id)->geneve_list. The net here could differ from dev_net(dev) if IFLA_NET_NS_PID,…
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IFLA_NET_NS_FD, or IFLA_TARGET_NETNSID is set. When dev_net(dev) is dismantled, geneve_exit_batch_rtnl() finally calls unregister_netdevice_queue() for each dev in the netns, and later the dev is freed. However, its geneve_dev.next is still linked to the backend UDP socket netns. Then, use-after-free will occur when another geneve dev is created in the netns. Let's call geneve_dellink() instead in geneve_destroy_tunnels(). [0]: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in geneve_find_dev drivers/net/geneve.c:1295 [inline] BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in geneve_configure+0x234/0x858 drivers/net/geneve.c:1343 Read of size 2 at addr ffff000054d6ee24 by task syz.1.4029/13441 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 13441 Comm: syz.1.4029 Not tainted 6.13.0-g0ad9617c78ac #24 dc35ca22c79fb82e8e7bc5c9c9adafea898b1e3d Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) Call trace: show_stack+0x38/0x50 arch/arm64/kernel/stacktrace.c:466 (C) __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0xbc/0x108 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0x16c/0x6f0 mm/kasan/report.c:489 kasan_report+0xc0/0x120 mm/kasan/report.c:602 __asan_report_load2_noabort+0x20/0x30 mm/kasan/report_generic.c:379 geneve_find_dev drivers/net/geneve.c:1295 [inline] geneve_configure+0x234/0x858 drivers/net/geneve.c:1343 geneve_newlink+0xb8/0x128 drivers/net/geneve.c:1634 rtnl_newlink_create+0x23c/0x868 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3795 __rtnl_newlink net/core/rtnetlink.c:3906 [inline] rtnl_newlink+0x1054/0x1630 net/core/rtnetlink.c:4021 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x61c/0x918 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6911 netlink_rcv_skb+0x1dc/0x398 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2543 rtnetlink_rcv+0x34/0x50 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6938 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1322 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x618/0x838 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1348 netlink_sendmsg+0x5fc/0x8b0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1892 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:713 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:728 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0x410/0x6f8 net/socket.c:2568 ___sys_sendmsg+0x178/0x1d8 net/socket.c:2622 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2654 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2659 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2657 [inline] __arm64_sys_sendmsg+0x12c/0x1c8 net/socket.c:2657 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:35 [inline] invoke_syscall+0x90/0x278 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 el0_svc_common+0x13c/0x250 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:132 do_el0_svc+0x54/0x70 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:151 el0_svc+0x4c/0xa8 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:744 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x78/0x108 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:762 el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x1a0 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:600 Allocated by task 13247: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x30/0x68 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_alloc_info+0x44/0x58 mm/kasan/generic.c:568 poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline] __kasan_kmalloc+0x84/0xa0 mm/kasan/common.c:394 kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4298 [inline] __kmalloc_node_noprof+0x2a0/0x560 mm/slub.c:4304 __kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x9c/0x230 mm/util.c:645 alloc_netdev_mqs+0xb8/0x11a0 net/core/dev.c:11470 rtnl_create_link+0x2b8/0xb50 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3604 rtnl_newlink_create+0x19c/0x868 net/core/rtnetlink.c:3780 __rtnl_newlink net/core/rtnetlink.c:3906 [inline] rtnl_newlink+0x1054/0x1630 net/core/rtnetlink.c:4021 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x61c/0x918 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6911 netlink_rcv_skb+0x1dc/0x398 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2543 rtnetlink_rcv+0x34/0x50 net/core/rtnetlink.c:6938 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_n ---truncated---
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-21858 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Geneve networking driver, specifically in the geneve_find_dev() function within drivers/net/geneve.c. The issue arises during Geneve device configuration, where geneve_configure() links a struct geneve_dev.next pointer to a list in net_generic(net, geneve_net_id)->geneve_list, potentially in a different network namespace (netns) if attributes like IFLA_NET_NS_PID, IFLA_NET_NS_FD, or IFLA_TARGET_NETNSID are set. When the device’s netns (dev_net(dev)) is dismantled, geneve_exit_batch_rtnl() queues the device for unregister_netdevice_queue() and eventual freeing, but the next pointer remains linked to the backend UDP socket’s netns. This leads to a use-after-free when a new Geneve device is created in that netns, as reported by syzkaller and confirmed by KASAN slab-use-after-free detection.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability, as indicated by its CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). Exploitation requires the ability to create and manipulate Geneve devices across network namespaces, typically needing capabilities like CAP_NET_ADMIN. By dismantling a netns containing a Geneve device and then creating a new one in the linked backend netns, the attacker triggers the use-after-free during geneve_configure(), potentially allowing arbitrary read/write access to freed memory, kernel crashes, or code execution with kernel privileges.
Kernel patches address the issue by replacing the call to geneve_destroy_tunnels() with geneve_dellink() to properly unlink the device from the list before freeing. Relevant stable branch commits include 3ce92ca990cfac88a87c61df3cc0b5880e688ecf, 5a0538ac6826807d6919f6aecbb8996c2865af2c, 788dbca056a8783ec063da3c9d49a3a71c76c283, 904e746b2e7fa952ab8801b303ce826a63153d78, and 9593172d93b9f91c362baec4643003dc29802929, available via git.kernel.org. Security practitioners should ensure systems run patched kernels to mitigate this CWE-416 vulnerability.
Details
- CWE(s)