high CVSS 7.8

CVE-2025-21722·Kernel vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nilfs2: do not force clear folio if buffer is referenced Patch series "nilfs2: protect busy buffer heads from being force-cleared". This series fixes the buffer head state inconsistency issues reported by syzbot that occurs when the filesystem is corrupted and falls back to read-only, and the associated buffer head use-after-free issue. This patch (of 2): Syzbot has reported that after nilfs2 detects filesystem corruption and falls back to read-only, inconsistencies in the buffer state may occur. One of the inconsistencies is that when nilfs2 calls mark_buffer_dirty() to set a data or metadata buffer as dirty, but it detects that the buffer is not in the uptodate state: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 6049 at fs/buffer.c:1177 mark_buffer_dirty+0x2e5/0x520 fs/buffer.c:1177 ... Call Trace: <TASK> nilfs_palloc_commit_alloc_entry+0x4b/0x160 fs/nilfs2/alloc.c:598 nilfs_ifile_create_inode+0x1dd/0x3a0 fs/nilfs2/ifile.c:73 nilfs_new_inode+0x254/0x830 fs/nilfs2/inode.c:344 nilfs_mkdir+0x10d/0x340 fs/nilfs2/namei.c:218 vfs_mkdir+0x2f9/0x4f0 fs/namei.c:4257 do_mkdirat+0x264/0x3a0 fs/namei.c:4280 __do_sys_mkdirat fs/namei.c:4295 [inline] __se_sys_mkdirat fs/namei.c:4293 [inline] __x64_sys_mkdirat+0x87/0xa0 fs/namei.c:4293 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x230 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f The other is when nilfs_btree_propagate(), which propagates the dirty state to the ancestor nodes of a b-tree that point to a dirty buffer, detects that the origin buffer is not dirty, even though it should be: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 5245 at fs/nilfs2/btree.c:2089 nilfs_btree_propagate+0xc79/0xdf0 fs/nilfs2/btree.c:2089 ... Call Trace: <TASK> nilfs_bmap_propagate+0x75/0x120 fs/nilfs2/bmap.c:345 nilfs_collect_file_data+0x4d/0xd0 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:587 nilfs_segctor_apply_buffers+0x184/0x340 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1006 nilfs_segctor_scan_file+0x28c/0xa50 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1045 nilfs_segctor_collect_blocks fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1216 [inline] nilfs_segctor_collect fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1540 [inline] nilfs_segctor_do_construct+0x1c28/0x6b90 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2115 nilfs_segctor_construct+0x181/0x6b0 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2479 nilfs_segctor_thread_construct fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2587 [inline] nilfs_segctor_thread+0x69e/0xe80 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2701 kthread+0x2f0/0x390 kernel/kthread.c:389 ret_from_fork+0x4b/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244 </TASK> Both of these issues are caused by the callbacks that handle the page/folio write requests, forcibly clear various states, including the working state of the buffers they hold, at unexpected times when they detect read-only fallback. Fix these issues by checking if the buffer is referenced before clearing the page/folio state, and skipping the clear if it is.

Severity
high
Software
Kernel
Fixed in
6.13.2
Published
2025-02-27

Affected versions

From: 6.13

Until: 6.13.2

Fixed in: 6.13.2

How to fix this CVE

Update your Linux kernel to version 6.13.2 or later to resolve this nilfs2 filesystem vulnerability that causes buffer state corruption during read-only fallback. Systems running kernel versions 6.13 through 6.13.1 should prioritize this update to prevent use-after-free conditions and filesystem consistency issues.

sudo dnf update kernel kernel-headers kernel-devel

Defensia detects this vulnerability

How to check if you are affected

  1. Step 1: Check your current kernel version with: uname -r
  2. Step 2: Verify if nilfs2 filesystem is in use with: mount | grep nilfs2 or lsblk -f | grep nilfs2
  3. Step 3: Search system logs for nilfs2 corruption warnings: grep -i 'nilfs2\|read-only\|filesystem' /var/log/kern.log /var/log/messages
  4. Step 4: Confirm kernel update by running uname -r again and verifying it shows 6.13.2 or later

FAQ

What is CVE-2025-21722?

CVE-2025-21722 is a kernel vulnerability in the nilfs2 filesystem driver where forced page/folio state clearing during read-only fallback causes buffer head state inconsistencies and potential use-after-free conditions, leading to filesystem corruption warnings.

Is CVE-2025-21722 being actively exploited?

No, CVE-2025-21722 is not currently being actively exploited in the wild according to CISA KEV data, and no public exploits are available.

What versions of Kernel are affected by CVE-2025-21722?

Kernel versions 6.13, 6.13.1, and 6.13.2-rc are affected. The vulnerability was patched starting with stable release 6.13.2.

How do I check if my server is vulnerable to CVE-2025-21722?

Run uname -r to display your kernel version; if it shows 6.13.0, 6.13.1, or earlier 6.13.x versions, and you use nilfs2 filesystems (check with mount | grep nilfs2), your system is vulnerable.

Does Defensia detect CVE-2025-21722?

Yes — Defensia's CVE advisory scanner compares installed package versions against the NVD database. If Kernel is installed on a monitored server, CVE-2025-21722 will appear in your dashboard with remediation steps.

Related Kernel CVEs

CVE-2024-42256CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix server re-repick on subrequest retry When a subrequest is marked for needing retry, netfs will call cifs_prepare_write() which will make cifs repick the server for the op before renegotiating credits; it then calls cifs_issue_write() which invokes smb2_async_writev() - which re-repicks the server. If a different server is then selected, this causes the increment of server->in_flight to happen against one record and the decrement to happen against another, leading to misaccounting. Fix this by just removing the repick code in smb2_async_writev(). As this is only called from netfslib-driven code, cifs_prepare_write() should always have been called first, and so server should never be NULL and the preparatory step is repeated in the event that we do a retry. The problem manifests as a warning looking something like: WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 72896 at fs/smb/client/smb2ops.c:97 smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... RIP: 0010:smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... smb2_writev_callback+0x334/0x560 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x77a/0x11b0 [cifs] kthread+0x187/0x1d0 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x60 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Which may be triggered by a number of different xfstests running against an Azure server in multichannel mode. generic/249 seems the most repeatable, but generic/215, generic/249 and generic/308 may also show it.
CVE-2024-36031CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: keys: Fix overwrite of key expiration on instantiation The expiry time of a key is unconditionally overwritten during instantiation, defaulting to turn it permanent. This causes a problem for DNS resolution as the expiration set by user-space is overwritten to TIME64_MAX, disabling further DNS updates. Fix this by restoring the condition that key_set_expiry is only called when the pre-parser sets a specific expiry.
CVE-2024-38612CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: sr: fix invalid unregister error path The error path of seg6_init() is wrong in case CONFIG_IPV6_SEG6_LWTUNNEL is not defined. In that case if seg6_hmac_init() fails, the genl_unregister_family() isn't called. This issue exist since commit 46738b1317e1 ("ipv6: sr: add option to control lwtunnel support"), and commit 5559cea2d5aa ("ipv6: sr: fix possible use-after-free and null-ptr-deref") replaced unregister_pernet_subsys() with genl_unregister_family() in this error path.
CVE-2024-38623CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Use variable length array instead of fixed size Should fix smatch warning: ntfs_set_label() error: __builtin_memcpy() 'uni->name' too small (20 vs 256)
CVE-2021-47548CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethernet: hisilicon: hns: hns_dsaf_misc: fix a possible array overflow in hns_dsaf_ge_srst_by_port() The if statement: if (port >= DSAF_GE_NUM) return; limits the value of port less than DSAF_GE_NUM (i.e., 8). However, if the value of port is 6 or 7, an array overflow could occur: port_rst_off = dsaf_dev->mac_cb[port]->port_rst_off; because the length of dsaf_dev->mac_cb is DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM (i.e., 6). To fix this possible array overflow, we first check port and if it is greater than or equal to DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM, the function returns.

References

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