Skip to main content

Boteraser | Website and Server Security Solutions

🛡️ CVE-2025-23143 — debian-linux

🟡 CVSS 5.5 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-476 NVD
5.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

net: Fix null-ptr-deref by sock_lock_init_class_and_name() and rmmod.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: Fix null-ptr-deref by sock_lock_init_class_and_name() and rmmod.

When I ran the repro [0] and waited a few seconds, I observed two

LOCKDEP splats: a warning immediately followed by a null-ptr-deref. [1]

Reproduction Steps:

1) Mount CIFS

2) Add an iptables rule to drop incoming FIN packets for CIFS

3) Unmount CIFS

4) Unload the CIFS module

5) Remove the iptables rule

At step 3), the CIFS module calls sock_release() for the underlying

TCP socket, and it returns quickly. However, the socket remains in

FIN_WAIT_1 because incoming FIN packets are dropped.

At this point, the module's refcnt is 0 while the socket is still

alive, so the following rmmod command succeeds.

# ss -tan

State Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port Peer Address:Port

FIN-WAIT-1 0 477 10.0.2.15:51062 10.0.0.137:445

# lsmod | grep cifs

cifs 1159168 0

This highlights a discrepancy between the lifetime of the CIFS module

and the underlying TCP socket. Even after CIFS calls sock_release()

and it returns, the TCP socket does not die immediately in order to

close the connection gracefully.

While this is generally fine, it causes an issue with LOCKDEP because

CIFS assigns a different lock class to the TCP socket's sk->sk_lock

using sock_lock_init_class_and_name().

Once an incoming packet is processed for the socket or a timer fires,

sk->sk_lock is acquired.

Then, LOCKDEP checks the lock context in check_wait_context(), where

hlock_class() is called to retrieve the lock class. However, since

the module has already been unloaded, hlock_class() logs a warning

and returns NULL, triggering the null-ptr-deref.

If LOCKDEP is enabled, we must ensure that a module calling

sock_lock_init_class_and_name() (CIFS, NFS, etc) cannot be unloaded

while such a socket is still alive to prevent this issue.

Let's hold the module reference in sock_lock_init_class_and_name()

and release it when the socket is freed in sk_prot_free().

Note that sock_lock_init() clears sk->sk_owner for svc_create_socket()

that calls sock_lock_init_class_and_name() for a listening socket,

which clones a socket by sk_clone_lock() without GFP_ZERO.

[0]:

CIFS_SERVER="10.0.0.137"

CIFS_PATH="//${CIFS_SERVER}/Users/Administrator/Desktop/CIFS_TEST"

DEV="enp0s3"

CRED="/root/WindowsCredential.txt"

MNT=$(mktemp -d /tmp/XXXXXX)

mount -t cifs ${CIFS_PATH} ${MNT} -o vers=3.0,credentials=${CRED},cache=none,echo_interval=1

iptables -A INPUT -s ${CIFS_SERVER} -j DROP

for i in $(seq 10);

do

umount ${MNT}

rmmod cifs

sleep 1

done

rm -r ${MNT}

iptables -D INPUT -s ${CIFS_SERVER} -j DROP

[1]:

DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(1)

WARNING: CPU: 10 PID: 0 at kernel/locking/lockdep.c:234 hlock_class (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:234 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:223)

Modules linked in: cifs_arc4 nls_ucs2_utils cifs_md4 [last unloaded: cifs]

CPU: 10 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/10 Not tainted 6.14.0 #36

Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014

RIP: 0010:hlock_class (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:234 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:223)

...

Call Trace:

<IRQ>

__lock_acquire (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:4853 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5178)

lock_acquire (kernel/locking/lockdep.c:469 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5853 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5816)

_raw_spin_lock_nested (kernel/locking/spinlock.c:379)

tcp_v4_rcv (./include/linux/skbuff.h:1678 ./include/net/tcp.h:2547 net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c:2350)

...

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00000000000000c4

PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode

PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page

PGD 0

Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI

CPU: 10 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/10 Tainted: G W 6.14.0 #36

Tainted: [W]=WARN

Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014

RIP: 0010:__lock_acquire (kernel/

---truncated---

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

Weakness class

CVE-2025-23143 is classified as CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference. A pointer that can be null is used without a check, crashing the process.

Affected software

CVE-2025-23143 is recorded against 3 packages.

  • debian-linux
  • kernel (from 6.14.0 up to 6.14.3)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 1 May 2025 and last revised on 14 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
git.kernel.org
lists.debian.org
cert-portal.siemens.com
cert-portal.siemens.com

CVE-2025-23143 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity MEDIUM
CVSS Score 5.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE CWE-476
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-05-01
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-07-14

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
debian-linux
kernel 6.14.0 6.14.3
linux-kernel

References

Similar Threats

Vulnerability Monitoring

Track new vulnerabilities in debian-linux

CVE-2025-23143 is rated CVSS 5.5 Medium. BotEraser monitors your WordPress installation and notifies you when software you use appears in our vulnerability database.

Set Up Free Alerts →

No credit card required  ·  Results in minutes

ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the vulnerabilities listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.