NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-21689

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: USB: serial: quatech2: fix null-ptr-deref in qt2_process_read_urb() This patch addresses a null-ptr-deref in qt2_process_read_urb() due to an incorrect bounds check in the following: if (newport > serial->num_ports) { dev_err(&port->dev, "%s - port change to invalid port: %i\n", __func__, newport); break; } The condition doesn't account for the valid range of the serial->port buffer, which is from 0 to serial->num_ports - 1. When newport is equal to serial->num_ports, the assignment of "port" in the following code is out-of-bounds and NULL: serial_priv->current_port = newport; port = serial->port[serial_priv->current_port]; The fix checks if newport is greater than or equal to serial->num_ports indicating it is out-of-bounds.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (12.0th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 12th percentile — 12.0% 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-2025-21689: 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 f7a33e608d9ae022b7f49307921627e34e9484ed, 3.5, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.13

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-21689?
CVE-2025-21689 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-02-10.
How severe is CVE-2025-21689?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-21689 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.