NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-21638

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sctp: sysctl: auth_enable: avoid using current->nsproxy As mentioned in a previous commit of this series, using the 'net' structure via 'current' is not recommended for different reasons: - Inconsistency: getting info from the reader's/writer's netns vs only from the opener's netns. - current->nsproxy can be NULL in some cases, resulting in an 'Oops' (null-ptr-deref), e.g. when the current task is exiting, as spotted by syzbot [1] using acct(2). The 'net' structure can be obtained from the table->data using container_of(). Note that table->data could also be used directly, but that would increase the size of this fix, while 'sctp.ctl_sock' still needs to be retrieved from 'net' structure.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.1 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (13.3th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 13th percentile — 13.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2025-21638: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 5.15.177, 6.6.72, b14878ccb7fac0242db82720b784ab62c467c0dc
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.13

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-21638?
CVE-2025-21638 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 7.1/10. Published 2025-01-19.
How severe is CVE-2025-21638?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.1 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-21638 known to be exploited?
3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.