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National Vulnerability Database

National Vulnerability Database

NVD

National Vulnerability Database
  1. Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-68245 Detail

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: netpoll: fix incorrect refcount handling causing incorrect cleanup commit efa95b01da18 ("netpoll: fix use after free") incorrectly ignored the refcount and prematurely set dev->npinfo to NULL during netpoll cleanup, leading to improper behavior and memory leaks. Scenario causing lack of proper cleanup: 1) A netpoll is associated with a NIC (e.g., eth0) and netdev->npinfo is allocated, and refcnt = 1 - Keep in mind that npinfo is shared among all netpoll instances. In this case, there is just one. 2) Another netpoll is also associated with the same NIC and npinfo->refcnt += 1. - Now dev->npinfo->refcnt = 2; - There is just one npinfo associated to the netdev. 3) When the first netpolls goes to clean up: - The first cleanup succeeds and clears np->dev->npinfo, ignoring refcnt. - It basically calls `RCU_INIT_POINTER(np->dev->npinfo, NULL);` - Set dev->npinfo = NULL, without proper cleanup - No ->ndo_netpoll_cleanup() is either called 4) Now the second target tries to clean up - The second cleanup fails because np->dev->npinfo is already NULL. * In this case, ops->ndo_netpoll_cleanup() was never called, and the skb pool is not cleaned as well (for the second netpoll instance) - This leaks npinfo and skbpool skbs, which is clearly reported by kmemleak. Revert commit efa95b01da18 ("netpoll: fix use after free") and adds clarifying comments emphasizing that npinfo cleanup should only happen once the refcount reaches zero, ensuring stable and correct netpoll behavior.


Metrics

 
NVD enrichment efforts reference publicly available information to associate vector strings. CVSS information contributed by other sources is also displayed.
CVSS 4.0 Severity and Vector Strings:

NIST CVSS score
NIST: NVD
N/A
NVD assessment not yet provided.

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URL Source(s) Tag(s)
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/49c8d2c1f94cc2f4d1a108530d7ba52614b874c2 kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4afd4ebbad52aa146838ec23082ba393e426a2bb kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/890472d6fbf062e6de7fdd56642cb305ab79d669 kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8e6a50edad11e3e1426e4c29e7aa6201f3468ac2 kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9a51b5ccd1c79afec1c03a4e1e6688da52597556 kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b0bb18b4b9dc017c1825a2c5e763615e34a1593 kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c645693180a98606c430825223d2029315d85e9d kernel.org
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c79a6d9da29219616b118a3adce9a14cd30f9bd0 kernel.org

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-ID CWE Name Source

Change History

1 change records found show changes

Quick Info

CVE Dictionary Entry:
CVE-2025-68245
NVD Published Date:
12/16/2025
NVD Last Modified:
04/14/2026
Source:
kernel.org