Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2025-21922
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ppp: Fix KMSAN uninit-value warning with bpf Syzbot caught an "KMSAN: uninit-value" warning [1], which is caused by the ppp driver not initializing a 2-byte header when using socket filter. The following code can generate a PPP filter BPF program: ''' struct bpf_program fp; pcap_t *handle; handle = pcap_open_dead(DLT_PPP_PPPD, 65535); pcap_compile(handle, &fp, "ip and outbound", 0, 0); bpf_dump(&fp, 1); ''' Its output is: ''' (000) ldh [2] (001) jeq #0x21 jt 2 jf 5 (002) ldb [0] (003) jeq #0x1 jt 4 jf 5 (004) ret #65535 (005) ret #0 ''' Wen can find similar code at the following link: https://github.com/ppp-project/ppp/blob/master/pppd/options.c#L1680 The maintainer of this code repository is also the original maintainer of the ppp driver. As you can see the BPF program skips 2 bytes of data and then reads the 'Protocol' field to determine if it's an IP packet. Then it read the first byte of the first 2 bytes to determine the direction. The issue is that only the first byte indicating direction is initialized in current ppp driver code while the second byte is not initialized. For normal BPF programs generated by libpcap, uninitialized data won't be used, so it's not a problem. However, for carefully crafted BPF programs, such as those generated by syzkaller [2], which start reading from offset 0, the uninitialized data will be used and caught by KMSAN. [1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=853242d9c9917165d791 [2] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/text?tag=ReproC&x=11994913980000
EPSS: 0.002 (10.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
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.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2, 2.6.12, 0
- Linux Linux_kernel — versions 6.14
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Patch)
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-21922?
- CVE-2025-21922 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under Use of Uninitialized Resource. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-04-01.
- How severe is CVE-2025-21922?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2025-21922 known to be exploited?
- 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.