Vulnerability in Linux

CVE-2025-21840

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: thermal/netlink: Prevent userspace segmentation fault by adjusting UAPI header The intel-lpmd tool [1], which uses the THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_CPU_CAPABILITY attribute to receive HFI events from kernel space, encounters a segmentation fault after commit 1773572863c4 ("thermal: netlink: Add the commands and the events for the thresholds"). The issue arises because the THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_CPU_CAPABILITY raw value was changed while intel_lpmd still uses the old value. Although intel_lpmd can be updated to check the THERMAL_GENL_VERSION and use the appropriate THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_CPU_CAPABILITY value, the commit itself is questionable. The commit introduced a new element in the middle of enum thermal_genl_attr, which affects many existing attributes and introduces potential risks and unnecessary maintenance burdens for userspace thermal netlink event users. Solve the issue by moving the newly introduced THERMAL_GENL_ATTR_TZ_PREV_TEMP attribute to the end of the enum thermal_genl_attr. This ensures that all existing thermal generic netlink attributes remain unaffected. [ rjw: Subject edits ]

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 (9.9th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 10th percentile — 9.9% 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-2025-21840: 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 1773572863c43a14a3e45f0591f28b7dec1ee52a, 6.13, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.14

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-21840?
CVE-2025-21840 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-03-07.
How severe is CVE-2025-21840?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-21840 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.