CVE-2025-22005
Linux Kernel 5.3 – 5.4.292
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-22005 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked at the 9th 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.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-9596
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: Fix memleak of nhc_pcpu_rth_output in fib_check_nh_v6_gw(). fib_check_nh_v6_gw() expects that fib6_nh_init() cleans up everything when it fails. Commit 7dd73168e273 ("ipv6: Always allocate pcpu memory in a fib6_nh") moved fib_nh_common_init() before…
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alloc_percpu_gfp() within fib6_nh_init() but forgot to add cleanup for fib6_nh->nh_common.nhc_pcpu_rth_output in case it fails to allocate fib6_nh->rt6i_pcpu, resulting in memleak. Let's call fib_nh_common_release() and clear nhc_pcpu_rth_output in the error path. Note that we can remove the fib6_nh_release() call in nh_create_ipv6() later in net-next.git.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation with kernel memory-leak detectors (kmemleak, KASAN) would have identified the missing fib_nh_common_release() call on the fib6_nh_init() error path.
Requiring secure-development tools and coding standards that enforce complete resource cleanup on every error path directly prevents the nhc_pcpu_rth_output leak introduced by the reordered allocation.
Timely application of the kernel patch that adds the missing cleanup in fib_check_nh_v6_gw() eliminates the memory leak once the flaw is known.
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 directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.
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 in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.
Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.
Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.
Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.
Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.