Answer in brief
CVE-2025-21792 records a High severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in ax25: Fix refcount leak caused by setting SO_BINDTODEVICE sockopt. 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 7.8. 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.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 <90056ece99966182dc0e367f3fd2afab46ada847 || >=9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 <94a0de224ed52eb2ecd4f4cb1b937b674c9fb955 || >=9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 <b58f7ca86a7b8e480c06e30c5163c5d2f4e24023 || >=9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 <470bda72fda0fcf54300466d70ce2de62f7835d2 || >=9fd75b66b8f68498454d685dc4ba13192ae069b0 <bca0902e61731a75fc4860c8720168d9f1bae3b6 || c44a453ffe16eb08acdc6129ac4fa0192dbc0456 || de55a1338e6a48ff1e41ea8db1432496fbe2a62b || 9e1e088a57c23251f1cfe9601bbd90ade2ea73b9 || b20a5ab0f5fb175750c6bafd4cf12daccf00c738 || 452ae92b99062d2f6a34324eaf705a3b7eac9f8b || 534156dd4ed768e30a43de0036f45dca7c54818f || >=4.14.277 <4.15 || >=4.19.240 <4.20 || >=5.4.190 <5.5 || >=5.10.112 <5.11 || >=5.15.35 <5.16 || >=5.17.2 <5.18 | 90056ece99966182dc0e367f3fd2afab46ada847, 94a0de224ed52eb2ecd4f4cb1b937b674c9fb955, b58f7ca86a7b8e480c06e30c5163c5d2f4e24023, 470bda72fda0fcf54300466d70ce2de62f7835d2, bca0902e61731a75fc4860c8720168d9f1bae3b6, 4.15, 4.20, 5.5, 5.11, 5.16, 5.18 |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 5.18 | Not reported |
Published upstream
Feb 27, 2025
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Aug 5, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Aug 5, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ax25: Fix refcount leak caused by setting SO_BINDTODEVICE sockopt If an AX25 device is bound to a socket by setting the SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option, a refcount leak will occur in ax25_release(). Commit 9fd75b66b8f6 ("ax25: Fix refcount leaks caused by ax25_cb_del()") added decrement of device refcounts in ax25_release(). In order for that to work correctly the refcounts must already be incremented when the device is bound to the socket. An AX25 device can be bound to a socket by either calling ax25_bind() or setting SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option. In both cases the refcounts should be incremented, but in fact it is done only in ax25_bind(). This bug leads to the following issue reported by Syzkaller: ================================================================ refcount_t: decrement hit 0; leaking memory. WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 5932 at lib/refcount.c:31 refcount_warn_saturate+0x1ed/0x210 lib/refcount.c:31 Modules linked in: CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 5932 Comm: syz-executor424 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc4-syzkaller-00110-g4099a71718b0 #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x1ed/0x210 lib/refcount.c:31 Call Trace: <TASK> __refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:336 [inline] refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:351 [inline] ref_tracker_free+0x710/0x820 lib/ref_tracker.c:236 netdev_tracker_free include/linux/netdevice.h:4156 [inline] netdev_put include/linux/netdevice.h:4173 [inline] netdev_put include/linux/netdevice.h:4169 [inline] ax25_release+0x33f/0xa10 net/ax25/af_ax25.c:1069 __sock_release+0xb0/0x270 net/socket.c:640 sock_close+0x1c/0x30 net/socket.c:1408 ... do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xcd/0x250 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f ... </TASK> ================================================================ Fix the implementation of ax25_setsockopt() by adding increment of refcounts for the new device bound, and decrement of refcounts for the old unbound device.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.