CVE-2025-21643

MEDIUM
Published Jan 19, 2025 Modified Oct 16, 2025

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix kernel async DIO Netfslib needs to be able to handle kernel-initiated asynchronous DIO that is supplied with a bio_vec[] array. Currently, because of the async flag, this gets passed to netfs_extract_user_iter() which throws a warning and fails because it only handles IOVEC and UBUF iterators. This can be triggered through a combination of cifs and a loopback blockdev with something like: mount //my/cifs/share /foo dd if=/dev/zero of=/foo/m0 bs=4K count=1K losetup --sector-size 4096 --direct-io=on /dev/loop2046 /foo/m0 echo hello >/dev/loop2046 This causes the following to appear in syslog: WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 109 at fs/netfs/iterator.c:50 netfs_extract_user_iter+0x170/0x250 [netfs] and the write to fail. Fix this by removing the check in netfs_unbuffered_write_iter_locked() that causes async kernel DIO writes to be handled as userspace writes. Note that this change relies on the kernel caller maintaining the existence of the bio_vec array (or kvec[] or folio_queue) until the op is complete.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

5.5
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected Products

Vendor Product
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-21643? +
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netfs: Fix kernel async DIO Netfslib needs to be able to handle kernel-initiated asynchronous DIO that is supplied with a bio_vec[] array. Currently, because of the async flag, this gets passed to netfs_extract_user_iter() which throws a warning and fails because it only handles IOVEC and UBUF iterators. This can be triggered through a combination of cifs and a loopback blockdev with something like: mount //my/cifs/share /foo dd if=/dev/zero of=/foo/m0 bs=4K count=1K losetup --sector-size 4096 --direct-io=on /dev/loop2046 /foo/m0 echo hello >/dev/loop2046 This causes the following to appear in syslog: WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 109 at fs/netfs/iterator.c:50 netfs_extract_user_iter+0x170/0x250 [netfs] and the write to fail. Fix this by removing the check in netfs_unbuffered_write_iter_locked() that causes async kernel DIO writes to be handled as userspace writes. Note that this change relies on the kernel caller maintaining the existence of the bio_vec array (or kvec[] or folio_queue) until the op is complete. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2025-21643? +
CVE-2025-21643 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.
What products are affected by CVE-2025-21643? +
CVE-2025-21643 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-21643? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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