Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-39673

Race Condition in Linux Kernel 5.13 – 5.15.190

Published
05 September 2025
Modified
30 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0030 22th percentile
Risk Priority 70 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-39673 is a critical-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 22th 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 SC-39 (Process Isolation) and SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ppp: fix race conditions in ppp_fill_forward_path ppp_fill_forward_path() has two race conditions: 1. The ppp->channels list can change between list_empty() and list_first_entry(), as ppp_lock() is not held. If the only channel…

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is deleted in ppp_disconnect_channel(), list_first_entry() may access an empty head or a freed entry, and trigger a panic. 2. pch->chan can be NULL. When ppp_unregister_channel() is called, pch->chan is set to NULL before pch is removed from ppp->channels. Fix these by using a lockless RCU approach: - Use list_first_or_null_rcu() to safely test and access the first list entry. - Convert list modifications on ppp->channels to their RCU variants and add synchronize_net() after removal. - Check for a NULL pch->chan before dereferencing it.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-38108Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38107Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-37985Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39697Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-38083Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26861Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2025-39759Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26897Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2023-52489Same product: Debian Debian Linux
CVE-2024-26960Same product: Debian Debian Linux

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.17 · 5.13 — 5.15.190 · 5.16 — 6.1.149 · 6.2 — 6.6.103
debian
debian linux
11.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V10.4.2
  • V10.4.5
  • V15.1.3
  • V15.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Maintaining separate execution domains for each process structurally eliminates unintended concurrent access to the same shared resources.

Preventing unintended information transfer through shared system resources directly addresses the improper concurrent modification that defines a race condition.

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 require proper synchronization primitives and concurrency testing that prevent 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.

finds

Security testing can detect race conditions, but does not prevent them at design or coding time.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates concurrency controls and synchronization primitives that directly prevent race conditions.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify thread-safety and locking rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture principles require proper synchronization and resource isolation, addressing the root cause of CWE-362.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe concurrent access patterns and mandate atomic operations or locks.

none

Change management reduces introduction of concurrency bugs during updates, yet does not address the weakness itself.

References