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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-22013

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-04-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.6.85 / 6.12.21 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: KVM: arm64: Unconditionally save+flush host FPSIMD/SVE/SME state There are several problems with the way hyp code lazily saves the host's FPSIMD/SVE state, including: * Host SVE being discarded unexpectedly due to inconsistent configuration of TIF_SVE and CPACR_ELx.ZEN. This has been seen to result in QEMU crashes where SVE is used by memmove(), as reported by Eric Auger: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-68997 * Host SVE state is discarded *after* modification by ptrace, which was an unintentional ptrace ABI change introduced with lazy discarding of SVE state. * The host FPMR value can be discarded when running a non-protected VM, where FPMR support is not exposed to a VM, and that VM uses FPSIMD/SVE. In these cases the hyp code does not save the host's FPMR before unbinding the host's FPSIMD/SVE/SME state, leaving a stale value in memory. Avoid these by eagerly saving and "flushing" the host's FPSIMD/SVE/SME state when loading a vCPU such that KVM does not need to save any of the host's FPSIMD/SVE/SME state. For clarity, fpsimd_kvm_prepare() is removed and the necessary call to fpsimd_save_and_flush_cpu_state() is placed in kvm_arch_vcpu_load_fp(). As 'fpsimd_state' and 'fpmr_ptr' should not be used, they are set to NULL; all uses of these will be removed in subsequent patches. Historical problems go back at least as far as v5.17, e.g. erroneous assumptions about TIF_SVE being clear in commit: 8383741ab2e773a9 ("KVM: arm64: Get rid of host SVE tracking/saving") ... and so this eager save+flush probably needs to be backported to ALL stable trees.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 6.2, < 6.6.85>= 6.7, < 6.12.21>= 6.13, < 6.13.9= 6.14

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.6.85 / 6.12.21 / 6.13.9 or later
Fixed in 6.6.856.12.216.13.9
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel 6.6.85+, 6.12.21+, 6.13.9+, or 6.14.1+ depending on your current branch

  1. 1. Identify the currently running kernel version using 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version'
  2. 2. Determine the appropriate upgrade target based on your current kernel branch: for 6.2-6.6.x upgrade to 6.6.85 or later; for 6.7-6.12.x upgrade to 6.12.21 or later; for 6.13.x upgrade to 6.13.9 or later; for 6.14.0 upgrade to 6.14.1 or later
  3. 3. Update the kernel package using your distribution's package manager (e.g., 'apt update && apt upgrade' for Debian/Ubuntu, 'yum update' for RHEL/CentOS, or 'dnf update' for Fedora)
  4. 4. Reboot the system to load the new kernel
  5. 5. Verify the fix is applied by checking 'uname -r' shows the patched version and confirming the kernel config includes CONFIG_KVM_ARM_HOST_FPSIMD=y
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require system reboot and could introduce compatibility changes with out-of-tree modules; ensure critical kernel modules are compatible with the new version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-22013 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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