boxscore/security
CVE · referencelatest edition

Reference page — cumulative record through Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2025-21701MEDIUM
Linux Linux — net: avoid race between device unregistration and ethnl ops
  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   L   H   L   N  U  N  N  H    4.7   .0017    6.5     —
AFFECTED
  Product  Versions                                    Fixed
  Linux    cfd719f04267108f5f5bf802b9d7de69e99a99f9 –  —
  Linux    5.16 –                                      5.15.179
TIMELINE
  Dec 29  Reserved by Linux
  Feb 13  Published (CNA: Linux)
  Jul 30  RESCORED — CVE-2025-21701 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 4.7 (NVD).
CWE-362 · CNA: Linux · CVSS v3.1 · 8 references · NVD status: Modified

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: avoid race between device unregistration and ethnl ops The following trace can be seen if a device is being unregistered while its number of channels are being modified. DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(lock->magic != lock) WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 3754 at kernel/locking/mutex.c:564 __mutex_lock+0xc8a/0x1120 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 3754 Comm: ethtool Not tainted 6.13.0-rc6+ #771 RIP: 0010:__mutex_lock+0xc8a/0x1120 Call Trace: <TASK> ethtool_check_max_channel+0x1ea/0x880 ethnl_set_channels+0x3c3/0xb10 ethnl_default_set_doit+0x306/0x650 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x1e3/0x2c0 genl_rcv_msg+0x432/0x6f0 netlink_rcv_skb+0x13d/0x3b0 genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 netlink_unicast+0x42e/0x720 netlink_sendmsg+0x765/0xc20 __sys_sendto+0x3ac/0x420 __x64_sys_sendto+0xe0/0x1c0 do_syscall_64+0x95/0x180 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e This is because unregister_netdevice_many_notify might run before the rtnl lock section of ethnl operations, eg. set_channels in the above example. In this example the rss lock would be destroyed by the device unregistration path before being used again, but in general running ethnl operations while dismantle has started is not a good idea. Fix this by denying any operation on devices being unregistered. A check was already there in ethnl_ops_begin, but not wide enough. Note that the same issue cannot be seen on the ioctl version (__dev_ethtool) because the device reference is retrieved from within the rtnl lock section there. Once dismantle started, the net device is unlisted and no reference will be found.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
DateEventDetail
December 29, 2024ReservedReserved by Linux
February 13, 2025PublishedPublished (CNA: Linux)
July 30, 2026RESCOREDRESCORED — CVE-2025-21701 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 4.7 (NVD).

Affected

Affected products and packages — 2 rows
VendorProduct / PackageEcosystemVersion introducedFixed
LinuxLinuxcfd719f04267108f5f5bf802b9d7de69e99a99f9
LinuxLinux5.165.15.179

Weaknesses

CWE-362

References (8)

Related

Authoritative record: CVE-2025-21701 at cve.org

Vendors: linux

Weaknesses: CWE-362

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2025-21701 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.