Kernel crash via mismatched TIME_WAIT socket release
Published May 20, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Denial of service in the Linux kernel allows local users to crash the system by reaching TCP_TIME_WAIT handling with crafted traffic. The IPv4 and IPv6 GRO paths can receive an inet_timewait_sock from a lookup but pass it to sock_put(), which treats it as a full sock and accesses invalid fields during release. Low-privileged local access is required, and the demonstrated consequence is a kernel panic rather than data disclosure or modification.
Summary
What happened
Denial of service in the Linux kernel allows local users to crash the system by reaching TCP_TIME_WAIT handling with crafted traffic. The IPv4 and IPv6 GRO paths can receive an inet_timewait_sock from a lookup but pass it to sock_put(), which treats it as a full sock and accesses invalid fields during release. Low-privileged local access is required, and the demonstrated consequence is a kernel panic rather than data disclosure or modification.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-37894
- Published
- May 20, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 20, 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
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.10
- Affected versionversion=c9d1d23e5239f41700be69133a5769ac5ebc88a8 <786650e644c5b1c063921799ca203c0b8670d79a
- Affected versionversion=c9d1d23e5239f41700be69133a5769ac5ebc88a8 <c0dba059b118b5206e755042b15b49368a388898
- Affected versionversion=c9d1d23e5239f41700be69133a5769ac5ebc88a8 <f920436a44295ca791ebb6dae3f4190142eec703
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo