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.
Linux Linux — ata: libata-sff: Ensure that we cannot write outside the allocated buffer
AV AC PR UI S C I A CVSS EPSS %ile KEV
L L L N U N N H 5.5 .0022 13.0 —
AFFECTED
Product Versions Fixed
Linux 5a5dbd18a7496ed403f6f54bb20c955c65482fa5 – —
Linux 2.6.22 – 6.1.129
TIMELINE
Dec 29 Reserved by Linux
Feb 27 Published (CNA: Linux)
Jul 30 RESCORED — CVE-2025-21738 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 5.5 (NVD).
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ata: libata-sff: Ensure that we cannot write outside the allocated buffer
reveliofuzzing reported that a SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND ioctl with out_len
set to 0xd42, SCSI command set to ATA_16 PASS-THROUGH, ATA command set to
ATA_NOP, and protocol set to ATA_PROT_PIO, can cause ata_pio_sector() to
write outside the allocated buffer, overwriting random memory.
While a ATA device is supposed to abort a ATA_NOP command, there does seem
to be a bug either in libata-sff or QEMU, where either this status is not
set, or the status is cleared before read by ata_sff_hsm_move().
Anyway, that is most likely a separate bug.
Looking at __atapi_pio_bytes(), it already has a safety check to ensure
that __atapi_pio_bytes() cannot write outside the allocated buffer.
Add a similar check to ata_pio_sector(), such that also ata_pio_sector()
cannot write outside the allocated buffer.
Lifecycle
Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
| Date | Event | Detail |
| December 29, 2024 | Reserved | Reserved by Linux |
| February 27, 2025 | Published | Published (CNA: Linux) |
| July 30, 2026 | RESCORED | RESCORED — CVE-2025-21738 (Linux). CVSS 7.8 → 5.5 (NVD). |
Affected
Affected products and packages — 2 rows
| Vendor | Product / Package | Ecosystem | Version introduced | Fixed |
| Linux | Linux | — | 5a5dbd18a7496ed403f6f54bb20c955c65482fa5 | — |
| Linux | Linux | — | 2.6.22 | 6.1.129 |
About this page
This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2025-21738 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.