NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-21846

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: acct: perform last write from workqueue In [1] it was reported that the acct(2) system call can be used to trigger NULL deref in cases where it is set to write to a file that triggers an internal lookup. This can e.g., happen when pointing acc(2) to /sys/power/resume. At the point the where the write to this file happens the calling task has already exited and called exit_fs(). A lookup will thus trigger a NULL-deref when accessing current->fs. Reorganize the code so that the the final write happens from the workqueue but with the caller's credentials. This preserves the (strange) permission model and has almost no regression risk. This api should stop to exist though.

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 (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-2025-21846: 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 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2, 2.6.12, 0
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.14

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-21846?
CVE-2025-21846 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-03-12.
How severe is CVE-2025-21846?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-21846 known to be exploited?
2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.