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Vulnerabilities/CVE-2025-21825Public Intelligence Dossier
Source: linux · Limited verification•Last verified: •Collection Degraded
CVE-2025-21825Unknown / EvaluatingHIGH (raw)CVSS 7.8CWE-415

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Cancel the running bpf_timer through kworker for PREEMPT_RT During the update procedure, when overwrite element in a pre-allocated htab, the freeing of old_element is protected by the bucket lock

Published: 06 Mar 2025•Last updated: 16 Oct 2026, 03:48 AM IST•Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Dossier completeness: source-provided sections 2 / 3 · rule guidance available. Missing source facts count as incomplete.
Official source
CISA KEV catalog
Unknown
KEV status was not determined.
CVSS score
7.8HIGH (raw)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Metric source416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
EPSS probability
0.2%0.002
Percentile7th
Weakness type
CWE-415
No further CWE recorded
Remediation
Patch status unknown
No fixed version or KB recorded

Why It Matters

Analysis dossier

Why It Matters

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Cancel the running bpf_timer through kworker for PREEMPT_RT During the update procedure, when overwrite element in a pre-allocated htab, the freeing of old_element is protected by the bucket lock. The reason why the bucket lock is necessary is that the old_element has already been stashed in htab->extra_elems after alloc_htab_elem() returns. If freeing the old_element after the bucket lock is unlocked, the stashed element may be reused by concurrent update procedure and the freeing of old_element will run concurrently with the reuse of the old_element. However, the invocation of check_and_free_fields() may acquire a spin-lock which violates the lockdep rule because its caller has already held a raw-spin-lock (bucket lock). The following warning will be reported when such race happens: BUG: scheduling while atomic: test_progs/676/0x00000003 3 locks held by test_progs/676: #0: ffffffff864b0240 (rcu_read_lock_trace){....}-{0:0}, at: bpf_prog_test_run_syscall+0x2c0/0x830 #1: ffff88810e961188 (&htab->lockdep_key){....}-{2:2}, at: htab_map_update_elem+0x306/0x1500 #2: ffff8881f4eac1b8 (&base->softirq_expiry_lock){....}-{2:2}, at: hrtimer_cancel_wait_running+0xe9/0x1b0 Modules linked in: bpf_testmod(O) Preemption disabled at: [ ] htab_map_update_elem+0x293/0x1500 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 676 Comm: test_progs Tainted: G ... 6.12.0+ #11 Tainted: [W]=WARN, [O]=OOT_MODULE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)... Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x70 dump_stack+0x10/0x20 __schedule_bug+0x120/0x170 __schedule+0x300c/0x4800 schedule_rtlock+0x37/0x60 rtlock_slowlock_locked+0x6d9/0x54c0 rt_spin_lock+0x168/0x230 hrtimer_cancel_wait_running+0xe9/0x1b0 hrtimer_cancel+0x24/0x30 bpf_timer_delete_work+0x1d/0x40 bpf_timer_cancel_and_free+0x5e/0x80 bpf_obj_free_fields+0x262/0x4a0 check_and_free_fields+0x1d0/0x280 htab_map_update_elem+0x7fc/0x1500 bpf_prog_9f90bc20768e0cb9_overwrite_cb+0x3f/0x43 bpf_prog_ea601c4649694dbd_overwrite_timer+0x5d/0x7e bpf_prog_test_run_syscall+0x322/0x830 __sys_bpf+0x135d/0x3ca0 __x64_sys_bpf+0x75/0xb0 x64_sys_call+0x1b5/0xa10 do_syscall_64+0x3b/0xc0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 ... It seems feasible to break the reuse and refill of per-cpu extra_elems into two independent parts: reuse the per-cpu extra_elems with bucket lock being held and refill the old_element as per-cpu extra_elems after the bucket lock is unlocked. However, it will make the concurrent overwrite procedures on the same CPU return unexpected -E2BIG error when the map is full. Therefore, the patch fixes the lock problem by breaking the cancelling of bpf_timer into two steps for PREEMPT_RT: 1) use hrtimer_try_to_cancel() and check its return value 2) if the timer is running, use hrtimer_cancel() through a kworker to cancel it again Considering that the current implementation of hrtimer_cancel() will try to acquire a being held softirq_expiry_lock when the current timer is running, these steps above are reasonable. However, it also has downside. When the timer is running, the cancelling of the timer is delayed when releasing the last map uref. The delay is also fixable (e.g., break the cancelling of bpf timer into two parts: one part in locked scope, another one in unlocked scope), it can be revised later if necessary. It is a bit hard to decide the right fix tag. One reason is that the problem depends on PREEMPT_RT which is enabled in v6.12. Considering the softirq_expiry_lock lock exists since v5.4 and bpf_timer is introduced in v5.15, the bpf_timer commit is used in the fixes tag and an extra depends-on tag is added to state the dependency on PREEMPT_RT. Depends-on: v6.12+ with PREEMPT_RT enabled

SOC priority

High

Actively exploited

Unknown

Publicly disclosed

Unknown

Risk basis: SOC ecosystem technology relevance; HIGH severity; No confirmed exploitation signal in current enrichment

Affected Products & Remediation

1 source-backed product
Affected products and versions (source)
  • linux linux kernel · >= 5.15 < 6.12.13; >= 6.13 < 6.13.2 · NVD CPE · Source
Recorded patch / KBNot provided by source

Vendor or catalog guidance (source)

Not provided by source

Known exploitation (source facts)

Only what a source states. Unknown means no source has said either way; it is not "not exploited".

CISA KEV
Unknown
Exploited (source statement)
Unknown
Publicly disclosed (source)
Unknown

Suggested hunting (rule-based inference)

SecOps Signal recommendation (rule-based inference). These steps are hunting hypotheses from the vulnerability class; they do not state or imply that exploitation occurred here or anywhere.

Matched local-privilege-escalation (CVSS AV:L, CVSS PR:L)

Exposure

  1. Identify hosts reporting this CVE, prioritising shared or multi-user systems.Telemetry: DeviceTvmSoftwareVulnerabilities · A local, low-privilege vector matters most where untrusted users can run code. · Rule local-privilege-escalation

Exploitation evidence

  1. Look for low-privileged processes spawning SYSTEM or root-level child processes on affected hosts.Telemetry: DeviceProcessEvents · Hunting hypothesis from the CVSS vector; privilege transitions are a focused starting point, not evidence of attack. · Rule local-privilege-escalation

Response

  1. Confirm the source-stated update on affected hosts.Telemetry: DeviceTvmSoftwareVulnerabilities · Host inventory can verify remediation. · Rule local-privilege-escalation

CISA KEV Record

CISA KEV status was not determined for this record.

Change History & Source Data

— No recorded material change

CNA / source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Record status · verification
UPDATED · NVD API
CPE
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Linked by the query's stored exact CVE association. Review required tables and validation status before use.

Detection Hunting Query
Target: DeviceTvmSoftwareVulnerabilities•Defender XDR
Detect endpoints exposed to CVE-2025-21825
Purpose: Exposure assessment (Category: Exposure Check)Why linked: Query metadata names CVE-2025-21825
DeviceTvmSoftwareVulnerabilities| where CveId == "CVE-2025-21825"| project DeviceId, DeviceName, OSPlatform, OSVersion, SoftwareVendor, SoftwareName, SoftwareVersion, CveId, VulnerabilitySeverityLevel, RecommendedSecurityUpdate, RecommendedSecurityUpdateId| sort by VulnerabilitySeverityLevel desc
Schema Checked · Not runtime validatedSource: SecOps Signal deterministic template · Limited verificationStatic screening: Passed structure and schema checks; tenant execution is not verified.
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Correlated briefings

SecOps Signal surfaces public advisory facts only. A missing value means the source has not published it, not that your environment is unaffected. No tenant inventory is connected.