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

net: vlan: fix VLAN 0 refcount imbalance of toggling filtering during runtime

Assuming the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is enabled on a net device, the
8021q module will automatically add or remove VLAN 0 when the net device
is put administratively up or down, respectively. There are a couple of
problems with the above scheme.

The first problem is a memory leak that can happen if the "rx-vlan-filter"
feature is disabled while the device is running:

# ip link add bond1 up type bond mode 0
# ethtool -K bond1 rx-vlan-filter off
# ip link del dev bond1

When the device is put administratively down the "rx-vlan-filter"
feature is disabled, so the 8021q module will not remove VLAN 0 and the
memory will be leaked [1].

Another problem that can happen is that the kernel can automatically
delete VLAN 0 when the device is put administratively down despite not
adding it when the device was put administratively up since during that
time the "rx-vlan-filter" feature was disabled. null-ptr-unref or
bug_on[2] will be triggered by unregister_vlan_dev() for refcount
imbalance if toggling filtering during runtime:

$ ip link add bond0 type bond mode 0
$ ip link add link bond0 name vlan0 type vlan id 0 protocol 802.1q
$ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter off
$ ifconfig bond0 up
$ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter on
$ ifconfig bond0 down
$ ip link del vlan0

Root cause is as below:
step1: add vlan0 for real_dev, such as bond, team.
register_vlan_dev
vlan_vid_add(real_dev,htons(ETH_P_8021Q),0) //refcnt=1
step2: disable vlan filter feature and enable real_dev
step3: change filter from 0 to 1
vlan_device_event
vlan_filter_push_vids
ndo_vlan_rx_add_vid //No refcnt added to real_dev vlan0
step4: real_dev down
vlan_device_event
vlan_vid_del(dev, htons(ETH_P_8021Q), 0); //refcnt=0
vlan_info_rcu_free //free vlan0
step5: delete vlan0
unregister_vlan_dev
BUG_ON(!vlan_info); //vlan_info is null

Fix both problems by noting in the VLAN info whether VLAN 0 was
automatically added upon NETDEV_UP and based on that decide whether it
should be deleted upon NETDEV_DOWN, regardless of the state of the
"rx-vlan-filter" feature.

[1]
unreferenced object 0xffff8880068e3100 (size 256):
comm "ip", pid 384, jiffies 4296130254
hex dump (first 32 bytes):
00 20 30 0d 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 . 0.............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
backtrace (crc 81ce31fa):
__kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x2b5/0x340
vlan_vid_add+0x434/0x940
vlan_device_event.cold+0x75/0xa8
notifier_call_chain+0xca/0x150
__dev_notify_flags+0xe3/0x250
rtnl_configure_link+0x193/0x260
rtnl_newlink_create+0x383/0x8e0
__rtnl_newlink+0x22c/0xa40
rtnl_newlink+0x627/0xb00
rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fb/0xb70
netlink_rcv_skb+0x11f/0x350
netlink_unicast+0x426/0x710
netlink_sendmsg+0x75a/0xc20
__sock_sendmsg+0xc1/0x150
____sys_sendmsg+0x5aa/0x7b0
___sys_sendmsg+0xfc/0x180

[2]
kernel BUG at net/8021q/vlan.c:99!
Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 382 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3 #61 PREEMPT(voluntary)
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996),
BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:unregister_vlan_dev (net/8021q/vlan.c:99 (discriminator 1))
RSP: 0018:ffff88810badf310 EFLAGS: 00010246
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88810da84000 RCX: ffffffffb47ceb9a
RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffff88810e8b43c8
RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: fffffbfff6cefe80
R10: ffffffffb677f407 R11: ffff88810badf3c0 R12: ffff88810e8b4000
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff88810642a5c0 R15: 000000000000017e
FS: 00007f1ff68c20c0(0000) GS:ffff888163a24000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f1ff5dad240 CR3: 0000000107e56000 CR4: 00000000000006f0
Call Trace:
<TASK
---truncated---
Published: 2025-07-28
Score: 5.5 Medium
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

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Tracking

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Advisories
Source ID Title
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-4327-1 linux security update
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-4328-1 linux-6.1 security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-5973-1 linux security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-5975-1 linux security update
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2025-22892 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: vlan: fix VLAN 0 refcount imbalance of toggling filtering during runtime Assuming the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is enabled on a net device, the 8021q module will automatically add or remove VLAN 0 when the net device is put administratively up or down, respectively. There are a couple of problems with the above scheme. The first problem is a memory leak that can happen if the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is disabled while the device is running: # ip link add bond1 up type bond mode 0 # ethtool -K bond1 rx-vlan-filter off # ip link del dev bond1 When the device is put administratively down the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is disabled, so the 8021q module will not remove VLAN 0 and the memory will be leaked [1]. Another problem that can happen is that the kernel can automatically delete VLAN 0 when the device is put administratively down despite not adding it when the device was put administratively up since during that time the "rx-vlan-filter" feature was disabled. null-ptr-unref or bug_on[2] will be triggered by unregister_vlan_dev() for refcount imbalance if toggling filtering during runtime: $ ip link add bond0 type bond mode 0 $ ip link add link bond0 name vlan0 type vlan id 0 protocol 802.1q $ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter off $ ifconfig bond0 up $ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter on $ ifconfig bond0 down $ ip link del vlan0 Root cause is as below: step1: add vlan0 for real_dev, such as bond, team. register_vlan_dev vlan_vid_add(real_dev,htons(ETH_P_8021Q),0) //refcnt=1 step2: disable vlan filter feature and enable real_dev step3: change filter from 0 to 1 vlan_device_event vlan_filter_push_vids ndo_vlan_rx_add_vid //No refcnt added to real_dev vlan0 step4: real_dev down vlan_device_event vlan_vid_del(dev, htons(ETH_P_8021Q), 0); //refcnt=0 vlan_info_rcu_free //free vlan0 step5: delete vlan0 unregister_vlan_dev BUG_ON(!vlan_info); //vlan_info is null Fix both problems by noting in the VLAN info whether VLAN 0 was automatically added upon NETDEV_UP and based on that decide whether it should be deleted upon NETDEV_DOWN, regardless of the state of the "rx-vlan-filter" feature. [1] unreferenced object 0xffff8880068e3100 (size 256): comm "ip", pid 384, jiffies 4296130254 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 20 30 0d 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 . 0............. 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 81ce31fa): __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x2b5/0x340 vlan_vid_add+0x434/0x940 vlan_device_event.cold+0x75/0xa8 notifier_call_chain+0xca/0x150 __dev_notify_flags+0xe3/0x250 rtnl_configure_link+0x193/0x260 rtnl_newlink_create+0x383/0x8e0 __rtnl_newlink+0x22c/0xa40 rtnl_newlink+0x627/0xb00 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fb/0xb70 netlink_rcv_skb+0x11f/0x350 netlink_unicast+0x426/0x710 netlink_sendmsg+0x75a/0xc20 __sock_sendmsg+0xc1/0x150 ____sys_sendmsg+0x5aa/0x7b0 ___sys_sendmsg+0xfc/0x180 [2] kernel BUG at net/8021q/vlan.c:99! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 382 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3 #61 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:unregister_vlan_dev (net/8021q/vlan.c:99 (discriminator 1)) RSP: 0018:ffff88810badf310 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88810da84000 RCX: ffffffffb47ceb9a RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffff88810e8b43c8 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: fffffbfff6cefe80 R10: ffffffffb677f407 R11: ffff88810badf3c0 R12: ffff88810e8b4000 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff88810642a5c0 R15: 000000000000017e FS: 00007f1ff68c20c0(0000) GS:ffff888163a24000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f1ff5dad240 CR3: 0000000107e56000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 Call Trace: <TASK ---truncated---
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7879-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7879-2 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7880-1 Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7879-3 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7879-4 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-2 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-3 Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7910-1 Linux kernel (Azure FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-4 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7910-2 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-5 Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7933-1 Linux kernel (KVM) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7934-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7938-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-2 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8031-1 Linux kernel (GCP) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-3 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-4 Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-5 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8031-2 Linux kernel (GCP FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-6 Linux kernel (HWE) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8031-3 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8052-1 Linux kernel (Low Latency) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-7 Linux kernel (Low Latency NVIDIA) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-8 Linux kernel (IBM) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8052-2 Linux kernel (Xilinx) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8074-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8074-2 Linux kernel (Azure FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8126-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
History

Tue, 12 May 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 19:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Debian
Debian debian Linux
Weaknesses NVD-CWE-Other
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Debian
Debian debian Linux

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 18:30:00 +0000


Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:45:00 +0000


Tue, 29 Jul 2025 12:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Low


Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 11:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: vlan: fix VLAN 0 refcount imbalance of toggling filtering during runtime Assuming the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is enabled on a net device, the 8021q module will automatically add or remove VLAN 0 when the net device is put administratively up or down, respectively. There are a couple of problems with the above scheme. The first problem is a memory leak that can happen if the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is disabled while the device is running: # ip link add bond1 up type bond mode 0 # ethtool -K bond1 rx-vlan-filter off # ip link del dev bond1 When the device is put administratively down the "rx-vlan-filter" feature is disabled, so the 8021q module will not remove VLAN 0 and the memory will be leaked [1]. Another problem that can happen is that the kernel can automatically delete VLAN 0 when the device is put administratively down despite not adding it when the device was put administratively up since during that time the "rx-vlan-filter" feature was disabled. null-ptr-unref or bug_on[2] will be triggered by unregister_vlan_dev() for refcount imbalance if toggling filtering during runtime: $ ip link add bond0 type bond mode 0 $ ip link add link bond0 name vlan0 type vlan id 0 protocol 802.1q $ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter off $ ifconfig bond0 up $ ethtool -K bond0 rx-vlan-filter on $ ifconfig bond0 down $ ip link del vlan0 Root cause is as below: step1: add vlan0 for real_dev, such as bond, team. register_vlan_dev vlan_vid_add(real_dev,htons(ETH_P_8021Q),0) //refcnt=1 step2: disable vlan filter feature and enable real_dev step3: change filter from 0 to 1 vlan_device_event vlan_filter_push_vids ndo_vlan_rx_add_vid //No refcnt added to real_dev vlan0 step4: real_dev down vlan_device_event vlan_vid_del(dev, htons(ETH_P_8021Q), 0); //refcnt=0 vlan_info_rcu_free //free vlan0 step5: delete vlan0 unregister_vlan_dev BUG_ON(!vlan_info); //vlan_info is null Fix both problems by noting in the VLAN info whether VLAN 0 was automatically added upon NETDEV_UP and based on that decide whether it should be deleted upon NETDEV_DOWN, regardless of the state of the "rx-vlan-filter" feature. [1] unreferenced object 0xffff8880068e3100 (size 256): comm "ip", pid 384, jiffies 4296130254 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 20 30 0d 80 88 ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 . 0............. 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc 81ce31fa): __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x2b5/0x340 vlan_vid_add+0x434/0x940 vlan_device_event.cold+0x75/0xa8 notifier_call_chain+0xca/0x150 __dev_notify_flags+0xe3/0x250 rtnl_configure_link+0x193/0x260 rtnl_newlink_create+0x383/0x8e0 __rtnl_newlink+0x22c/0xa40 rtnl_newlink+0x627/0xb00 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x6fb/0xb70 netlink_rcv_skb+0x11f/0x350 netlink_unicast+0x426/0x710 netlink_sendmsg+0x75a/0xc20 __sock_sendmsg+0xc1/0x150 ____sys_sendmsg+0x5aa/0x7b0 ___sys_sendmsg+0xfc/0x180 [2] kernel BUG at net/8021q/vlan.c:99! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 382 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.16.0-rc3 #61 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:unregister_vlan_dev (net/8021q/vlan.c:99 (discriminator 1)) RSP: 0018:ffff88810badf310 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88810da84000 RCX: ffffffffb47ceb9a RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffff88810e8b43c8 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: fffffbfff6cefe80 R10: ffffffffb677f407 R11: ffff88810badf3c0 R12: ffff88810e8b4000 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff88810642a5c0 R15: 000000000000017e FS: 00007f1ff68c20c0(0000) GS:ffff888163a24000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f1ff5dad240 CR3: 0000000107e56000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 Call Trace: <TASK ---truncated---
Title net: vlan: fix VLAN 0 refcount imbalance of toggling filtering during runtime
References

Subscriptions

Debian Debian Linux
Linux Linux Kernel
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-05-12T12:05:05.471Z

Reserved: 2025-04-16T04:51:24.020Z

Link: CVE-2025-38470

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Modified

Published: 2025-07-28T12:15:28.760

Modified: 2026-05-12T13:16:50.590

Link: CVE-2025-38470

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Low

Publid Date: 2025-07-28T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2025-38470 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2025-07-29T07:59:27Z

Weaknesses