vulnerability
Red Hat: CVE-2025-37953: kernel: sch_htb: make htb_deactivate() idempotent
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | (AV:L/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C) | May 20, 2025 | Jul 9, 2025 | Jul 10, 2025 |
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
sch_htb: make htb_deactivate() idempotent
Alan reported a NULL pointer dereference in htb_next_rb_node()
after we made htb_qlen_notify() idempotent.
It turns out in the following case it introduced some regression:
htb_dequeue_tree():
|-> fq_codel_dequeue()
|-> qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog()
|-> htb_qlen_notify()
|-> htb_deactivate()
|-> htb_next_rb_node()
|-> htb_deactivate()
For htb_next_rb_node(), after calling the 1st htb_deactivate(), the
clprio[prio]->ptr could be already set to NULL, which means
htb_next_rb_node() is vulnerable here.
For htb_deactivate(), although we checked qlen before calling it, in
case of qlen==0 after qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog(), we may call it again
which triggers the warning inside.
To fix the issues here, we need to:
1) Make htb_deactivate() idempotent, that is, simply return if we
already call it before.
2) Make htb_next_rb_node() safe against ptr==NULL.
Many thanks to Alan for testing and for the reproducer.
Solution
References
Explore Exposure Command
Confidently identify and prioritize exposures from endpoint to cloud with full attack surface visibility and threat-aware risk context.