Guest crash via unchecked XDP frame conversion
Published May 8, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
A NULL-pointer dereference in affected Linux kernel releases allows local users to crash a Xen guest through a xen-netfront XDP transmit path. In xennet_run_xdp(), the XDP_TX branch passes an unchecked NULL result from xdp_convert_buff_to_frame() to xennet_xdp_xmit(). The path requires a Xen guest using xen-netfront with an attached XDP program that returns XDP_TX; conversion failure can terminate kernel processing, while failed XDP redirects also leak retained page references.
Summary
What happened
A NULL-pointer dereference in affected Linux kernel releases allows local users to crash a Xen guest through a xen-netfront XDP transmit path. In xennet_run_xdp(), the XDP_TX branch passes an unchecked NULL result from xdp_convert_buff_to_frame() to xennet_xdp_xmit(). The path requires a Xen guest using xen-netfront with an attached XDP program that returns XDP_TX; conversion failure can terminate kernel processing, while failed XDP redirects also leak retained page references.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-37820
- Published
- May 8, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 8, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=5.9
- Affected versionversion=6c5aa6fc4defc2a0977a2c59e4710d50fa1e834c <5b83d30c63f9964acb1bc63eb8e670b9e0d2c240
- Affected versionversion=6c5aa6fc4defc2a0977a2c59e4710d50fa1e834c <cc3628dcd851ddd8d418bf0c897024b4621ddc92
- Affected versionversion=6c5aa6fc4defc2a0977a2c59e4710d50fa1e834c <cefd8a2e2de46209ce66e6d30c237eb59b6c5bfa
- Affected versionversion=6c5aa6fc4defc2a0977a2c59e4710d50fa1e834c <d6a9c4e6f9b3ec3ad98468c950ad214af8a2efb9
- Affected versionversion=6c5aa6fc4defc2a0977a2c59e4710d50fa1e834c <eefccd889df3b49d92e7349d94c4aa7e1ba19f6c
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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