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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

Moderate severity Unreviewed Published Dec 4, 2025 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Jun 2, 2026

Package

No package listed— Suggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

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

devlink: rate: Unset parent pointer in devl_rate_nodes_destroy

The function devl_rate_nodes_destroy is documented to "Unset parent for
all rate objects". However, it was only calling the driver-specific
rate_leaf_parent_set or rate_node_parent_set ops and decrementing
the parent's refcount, without actually setting the
devlink_rate->parent pointer to NULL.

This leaves a dangling pointer in the devlink_rate struct, which cause
refcount error in netdevsim[1] and mlx5[2]. In addition, this is
inconsistent with the behavior of devlink_nl_rate_parent_node_set,
where the parent pointer is correctly cleared.

This patch fixes the issue by explicitly setting devlink_rate->parent
to NULL after notifying the driver, thus fulfilling the function's
documented behavior for all rate objects.

[1]
repro steps:
echo 1 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/new_device
devlink dev eswitch set netdevsim/netdevsim1 mode switchdev
echo 1 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/devices/netdevsim1/sriov_numvfs
devlink port function rate add netdevsim/netdevsim1/test_node
devlink port function rate set netdevsim/netdevsim1/128 parent test_node
echo 1 > /sys/bus/netdevsim/del_device

dmesg:
refcount_t: decrement hit 0; leaking memory.
WARNING: CPU: 8 PID: 1530 at lib/refcount.c:31 refcount_warn_saturate+0x42/0xe0
CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 1530 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.18.0-rc4+ #1 NONE
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x42/0xe0
Call Trace:

devl_rate_leaf_destroy+0x8d/0x90
__nsim_dev_port_del+0x6c/0x70 [netdevsim]
nsim_dev_reload_destroy+0x11c/0x140 [netdevsim]
nsim_drv_remove+0x2b/0xb0 [netdevsim]
device_release_driver_internal+0x194/0x1f0
bus_remove_device+0xc6/0x130
device_del+0x159/0x3c0
device_unregister+0x1a/0x60
del_device_store+0x111/0x170 [netdevsim]
kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x12e/0x1e0
vfs_write+0x215/0x3d0
ksys_write+0x5f/0xd0
do_syscall_64+0x55/0x10f0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53

[2]
devlink dev eswitch set pci/0000:08:00.0 mode switchdev
devlink port add pci/0000:08:00.0 flavour pcisf pfnum 0 sfnum 1000
devlink port function rate add pci/0000:08:00.0/group1
devlink port function rate set pci/0000:08:00.0/32768 parent group1
modprobe -r mlx5_ib mlx5_fwctl mlx5_core

dmesg:
refcount_t: decrement hit 0; leaking memory.
WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 16151 at lib/refcount.c:31 refcount_warn_saturate+0x42/0xe0
CPU: 7 UID: 0 PID: 16151 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.17.0-rc7_for_upstream_min_debug_2025_10_02_12_44 #1 NONE
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x42/0xe0
Call Trace:

devl_rate_leaf_destroy+0x8d/0x90
mlx5_esw_offloads_devlink_port_unregister+0x33/0x60 [mlx5_core]
mlx5_esw_offloads_unload_rep+0x3f/0x50 [mlx5_core]
mlx5_eswitch_unload_sf_vport+0x40/0x90 [mlx5_core]
mlx5_sf_esw_event+0xc4/0x120 [mlx5_core]
notifier_call_chain+0x33/0xa0
blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x3b/0x50
mlx5_eswitch_disable_locked+0x50/0x110 [mlx5_core]
mlx5_eswitch_disable+0x63/0x90 [mlx5_core]
mlx5_unload+0x1d/0x170 [mlx5_core]
mlx5_uninit_one+0xa2/0x130 [mlx5_core]
remove_one+0x78/0xd0 [mlx5_core]
pci_device_remove+0x39/0xa0
device_release_driver_internal+0x194/0x1f0
unbind_store+0x99/0xa0
kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x12e/0x1e0
vfs_write+0x215/0x3d0
ksys_write+0x5f/0xd0
do_syscall_64+0x53/0x1f0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Dec 4, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Dec 4, 2025
Last updated Jun 2, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(6th percentile)

Weaknesses

NULL Pointer Dereference

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-40251

GHSA ID

GHSA-4fxr-v6jm-9j9m

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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