Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2025-22089

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-04-16

Fix available

A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.180 / 6.1.134 or later.

See remediation →

57/100

Remediation priority · Elevated

Zero-click Patch available

Official description

NVD · unedited

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RDMA/core: Don't expose hw_counters outside of init net namespace Commit 467f432a521a ("RDMA/core: Split port and device counter sysfs attributes") accidentally almost exposed hw counters to non-init net namespaces. It didn't expose them fully, as an attempt to read any of those counters leads to a crash like this one: [42021.807566] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000028 [42021.814463] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [42021.819549] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [42021.824636] PGD 0 P4D 0 [42021.827145] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI [42021.830598] CPU: 82 PID: 2843922 Comm: switchto-defaul Kdump: loaded Tainted: G S W I XXX [42021.841697] Hardware name: XXX [42021.849619] RIP: 0010:hw_stat_device_show+0x1e/0x40 [ib_core] [42021.855362] Code: 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 49 89 d0 4c 8b 5e 20 48 8b 8f b8 04 00 00 48 81 c7 f0 fa ff ff <48> 8b 41 28 48 29 ce 48 83 c6 d0 48 c1 ee 04 69 d6 ab aa aa aa 48 [42021.873931] RSP: 0018:ffff97fe90f03da0 EFLAGS: 00010287 [42021.879108] RAX: ffff9406988a8c60 RBX: ffff940e1072d438 RCX: 0000000000000000 [42021.886169] RDX: ffff94085f1aa000 RSI: ffff93c6cbbdbcb0 RDI: ffff940c7517aef0 [42021.893230] RBP: ffff97fe90f03e70 R08: ffff94085f1aa000 R09: 0000000000000000 [42021.900294] R10: ffff94085f1aa000 R11: ffffffffc0775680 R12: ffffffff87ca2530 [42021.907355] R13: ffff940651602840 R14: ffff93c6cbbdbcb0 R15: ffff94085f1aa000 [42021.914418] FS: 00007fda1a3b9700(0000) GS:ffff94453fb80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [42021.922423] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [42021.928130] CR2: 0000000000000028 CR3: 00000042dcfb8003 CR4: 00000000003726f0 [42021.935194] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [42021.942257] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [42021.949324] Call Trace: [42021.951756] <TASK> [42021.953842] [<ffffffff86c58674>] ? show_regs+0x64/0x70 [42021.959030] [<ffffffff86c58468>] ? __die+0x78/0xc0 [42021.963874] [<ffffffff86c9ef75>] ? page_fault_oops+0x2b5/0x3b0 [42021.969749] [<ffffffff87674b92>] ? exc_page_fault+0x1a2/0x3c0 [42021.975549] [<ffffffff87801326>] ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30 [42021.981517] [<ffffffffc0775680>] ? __pfx_show_hw_stats+0x10/0x10 [ib_core] [42021.988482] [<ffffffffc077564e>] ? hw_stat_device_show+0x1e/0x40 [ib_core] [42021.995438] [<ffffffff86ac7f8e>] dev_attr_show+0x1e/0x50 [42022.000803] [<ffffffff86a3eeb1>] sysfs_kf_seq_show+0x81/0xe0 [42022.006508] [<ffffffff86a11134>] seq_read_iter+0xf4/0x410 [42022.011954] [<ffffffff869f4b2e>] vfs_read+0x16e/0x2f0 [42022.017058] [<ffffffff869f50ee>] ksys_read+0x6e/0xe0 [42022.022073] [<ffffffff8766f1ca>] do_syscall_64+0x6a/0xa0 [42022.027441] [<ffffffff8780013b>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x78/0xe2 The problem can be reproduced using the following steps: ip netns add foo ip netns exec foo bash cat /sys/class/infiniband/mlx4_0/hw_counters/* The panic occurs because of casting the device pointer into an ib_device pointer using container_of() in hw_stat_device_show() is wrong and leads to a memory corruption. However the real problem is that hw counters should never been exposed outside of the non-init net namespace. Fix this by saving the index of the corresponding attribute group (it might be 1 or 2 depending on the presence of driver-specific attributes) and zeroing the pointer to hw_counters group for compat devices during the initialization. With this fix applied hw_counters are not available in a non-init net namespace: find /sys/class/infiniband/mlx4_0/ -name hw_counters /sys/class/infiniband/mlx4_0/ports/1/hw_counters /sys/class/infiniband/mlx4_0/ports/2/hw_counters /sys/class/infiniband/mlx4_0/hw_counters ip netns add foo ip netns exec foo bash find /sys/class/infiniband/mlx4_0/ -name hw_counters

Technical summary

dbcve analysis

How this class of weakness works · CWE-476

The code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.

General guidance for the null pointer dereference class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions

NVD · CPE data

Linux KernelOperating system

Affected:>= 5.14, < 5.15.180>= 5.16, < 6.1.134>= 6.2, < 6.6.87>= 6.7, < 6.12.23>= 6.13, < 6.13.11>= 6.14, < 6.14.2

CVSS breakdown

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

dbcve · scoped

Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.15.180 / 6.1.134 / 6.6.87 or later

Fixed in 5.15.1806.1.1346.6.87

Vendor patch git.kernel.org →

Recommended fix High confidence

Kernel 5.15.180, 6.1.134, 6.6.87, or 6.12.23 (or later stable release)

Upgrade the Linux kernel to one of the following fixed versions: 5.15.180, 6.1.134, 6.6.87, or 6.12.23 (or a later stable release)
After upgrading, verify the fix by attempting to access hw_counters from a non-init namespace: ip netns add foo && ip netns exec foo cat /sys/class/infiniband/*/hw_counters/* - this should now return empty or not expose the hw_counters
Alternatively, if immediate upgrade is not possible, apply the vendor patch commit 0cf80f924aecb5b2bebd4f4ad11b2efc676a0b78 to the kernel source

Caveat Standard kernel upgrade considerations apply - verify hardware compatibility and that required kernel modules are available in 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 $2,850. Get the upgrade done

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References

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-22089 in production — separate from our analysis above.

Notes0 Guidelines

Know something about CVE-2025-22089?

The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.

The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
A config change or rule that shut the vector down
A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here

Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data

At a glance

A fix existsUpgrade to 5.15.180 / 6.1.134 or later

Severity 5.5 Medium

Exploit likelihood EPSS, next 30 days 0.2%

Affects: Linux Kernel

Remediation

Need this fixed?

Get a fix

Estimated effortfrom ~16 hrs

ComplexityComplex

Typical engagementfrom $2,850

What a fix involves

We scope it with you and confirm a fixed quote
A specialist builds a reviewed fix
You deploy it to staging first
Optional re-test once it’s live

We specialise in CVE remediation. Send your environment and we’ll scope CVE-2025-22089 and return a fixed quote.

You’ll deal with our team directly and deploy the reviewed fix to staging first — never straight to production.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scan for this in your stack

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

Practitioner notes

No notes yet

Official description

Technical summary

Affected products & versions

CVSS breakdown

Remediation

References