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CVE-2025-21792

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CVE-2025-21792

Published: Feb 27, 2025

Modified: May 23, 2026

PUBLISHED

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ax25: Fix refcount leak caused by setting SO_BINDTODEVICE sockopt If an AX25 device is bound to a socket by setting the SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option, a refcount leak will occur in ax25_release(). Commit 9fd75b66b8f6 ("ax25: Fix refcount leaks caused by ax25_cb_del()") added decrement of device refcounts in ax25_release(). In order for that to work correctly the refcounts must already be incremented when the device is bound to the socket. An AX25 device can be bound to a socket by either calling ax25_bind() or setting SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option. In both cases the refcounts should be incremented, but in fact it is done only in ax25_bind(). This bug leads to the following issue reported by Syzkaller: ================================================================ refcount_t: decrement hit 0; leaking memory. WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 5932 at lib/refcount.c:31 refcount_warn_saturate+0x1ed/0x210 lib/refcount.c:31 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5932 Comm: syz-executor424 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc4-syzkaller-00110-g4099a71718b0 #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x1ed/0x210 lib/refcount.c:31 Call Trace: <TASK> __refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:336 [inline] refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:351 [inline] ref_tracker_free+0x710/0x820 lib/ref_tracker.c:236 netdev_tracker_free include/linux/netdevice.h:4156 [inline] netdev_put include/linux/netdevice.h:4173 [inline] netdev_put include/linux/netdevice.h:4169 [inline] ax25_release+0x33f/0xa10 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:1069 __sock_release+0xb0/0x270 net/socket.c:640 sock_close+0x1c/0x30 net/socket.c:1408 ... do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0x250 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f ... </TASK> ================================================================ Fix the implementation of ax25_setsockopt() by adding increment of refcounts for the new device bound, and decrement of refcounts for the old unbound device.

VendorProductVersions

Linux

Linux

affected
9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 - < 90056ece99966182dc0e367f3fd2afab46ada847
affected
9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 - < 94a0de224ed52eb2ecd4f4cb1b937b674c9fb955
affected
9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 - < b58f7ca86a7b8e480c06e30c5163c5d2f4e24023
affected
9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 - < 470bda72fda0fcf54300466d70ce2de62f7835d2
affected
9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 - < bca0902e61731a75fc4860c8720168d9f1bae3b6

+12 more versions

Linux

Linux

affected
5.18
unaffected
0 - < 5.18
unaffected
6.1.129 - <= 6.1.*
unaffected
6.6.79 - <= 6.6.*
unaffected
6.12.16 - <= 6.12.*

+2 more versions

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