Answer in brief
CVE-2025-21681 records a Medium severity (CVSS 5.5) vulnerability in openvswitch: fix lockup on tx to unregistering netdev with carrier. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 5.5. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Product | Affected versions | Fixed versions |
|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=9b0dd09c1ceb35950d2884848099fccc9ec9a123 <b5c73fc92f8d15c16e5dc87b5c17d2abf1e6d092 || >=284be5db6c8d06d247ed056cfc448c4f79bbb16c <87fcf0d137c770e6040ebfdb0abd8e7dd481b504 || >=5efcb301523baacd98a47553d4996e924923114d <930268823f6bccb697aa5d2047aeffd4a497308c || >=644b3051b06ba465bc7401bfae9b14963cbc8c1c <ea9e990356b7bee95440ba0e6e83cc4d701afaca || >=066b86787fa3d97b7aefb5ac0a99a22dad2d15f8 <ea966b6698785fb9cd0fdb867acd91b222e4723f || >=066b86787fa3d97b7aefb5ac0a99a22dad2d15f8 <82f433e8dd0629e16681edf6039d094b5518d8ed || >=066b86787fa3d97b7aefb5ac0a99a22dad2d15f8 <47e55e4b410f7d552e43011baa5be1aab4093990 || 56252da41426f3d01957456f13caf46ce670ea29 || >=6.1.25 <6.1.127 || >=6.2.12 <6.3 | b5c73fc92f8d15c16e5dc87b5c17d2abf1e6d092, 87fcf0d137c770e6040ebfdb0abd8e7dd481b504, 930268823f6bccb697aa5d2047aeffd4a497308c, ea9e990356b7bee95440ba0e6e83cc4d701afaca, ea966b6698785fb9cd0fdb867acd91b222e4723f, 82f433e8dd0629e16681edf6039d094b5518d8ed, 47e55e4b410f7d552e43011baa5be1aab4093990, 6.1.127, 6.3 |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 6.3 | Not reported |
Published upstream
Jan 31, 2025
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Nov 5, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Nov 5, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: openvswitch: fix lockup on tx to unregistering netdev with carrier Commit in a fixes tag attempted to fix the issue in the following sequence of calls: do_output -> ovs_vport_send -> dev_queue_xmit -> __dev_queue_xmit -> netdev_core_pick_tx -> skb_tx_hash When device is unregistering, the 'dev->real_num_tx_queues' goes to zero and the 'while (unlikely(hash >= qcount))' loop inside the 'skb_tx_hash' becomes infinite, locking up the core forever. But unfortunately, checking just the carrier status is not enough to fix the issue, because some devices may still be in unregistering state while reporting carrier status OK. One example of such device is a net/dummy. It sets carrier ON on start, but it doesn't implement .ndo_stop to set the carrier off. And it makes sense, because dummy doesn't really have a carrier. Therefore, while this device is unregistering, it's still easy to hit the infinite loop in the skb_tx_hash() from the OVS datapath. There might be other drivers that do the same, but dummy by itself is important for the OVS ecosystem, because it is frequently used as a packet sink for tcpdump while debugging OVS deployments. And when the issue is hit, the only way to recover is to reboot. Fix that by also checking if the device is running. The running state is handled by the net core during unregistering, so it covers unregistering case better, and we don't really need to send packets to devices that are not running anyway. While only checking the running state might be enough, the carrier check is preserved. The running and the carrier states seem disjoined throughout the code and different drivers. And other core functions like __dev_direct_xmit() check both before attempting to transmit a packet. So, it seems safer to check both flags in OVS as well.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.