CVE-2025-40251

A dangling pointer access problem was found while devl_rate_nodes_destroy in net/devlink/rate.c in devlink in the Linux Kernel. This flaw may allow an attacker to cause a denial of service.

This vulnerability is rated as having a Moderate impact because exploitation requires local administrative privileges (specifically CAP_NET_ADMIN) to configure devlink rate hierarchies, restricting the blast radius to a local denial of service. The flaw occurs during the destruction of devlink rate objects when unbinding or unregistering supported network interfaces, resulting in a dangling parent reference and refcount underflow warnings. Typical enterprise environments that do not configure devlink port rate groups or use supported virtual or physical switch interfaces will not encounter this condition during routine operations.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.