{"id":"CVE-2025-71097","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2025-71097","generatedAt":"2026-10-27T23:08:19.847Z","title":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv4: Fix reference count leak when using error routes with nexthop objects When a nexthop object is deleted, it is marked as dead and then fib_table_flush() is called to flush all the…","description":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nipv4: Fix reference count leak when using error routes with nexthop objects\n\nWhen a nexthop object is deleted, it is marked as dead and then\nfib_table_flush() is called to flush all the routes that are using the\ndead nexthop.\n\nThe current logic in fib_table_flush() is to only flush error routes\n(e.g., blackhole) when it is called as part of network namespace\ndismantle (i.e., with flush_all=true). Therefore, error routes are not\nflushed when their nexthop object is deleted:\n\n # ip link add name dummy1 up type dummy\n # ip nexthop add id 1 dev dummy1\n # ip route add 198.51.100.1/32 nhid 1\n # ip route add blackhole 198.51.100.2/32 nhid 1\n # ip nexthop del id 1\n # ip route show\n blackhole 198.51.100.2 nhid 1 dev dummy1\n\nAs such, they keep holding a reference on the nexthop object which in\nturn holds a reference on the nexthop device, resulting in a reference\ncount leak:\n\n # ip link del dev dummy1\n [   70.516258] unregister_netdevice: waiting for dummy1 to become free. Usage count = 2\n\nFix by flushing error routes when their nexthop is marked as dead.\n\nIPv6 does not suffer from this problem.","published":"2026-01-13T16:16:10.000Z","lastModified":"2026-10-19T19:17:12.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":5.5,"severity":"MEDIUM","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-401"],"affected":["linux/linux kernel"],"epss":{"score":0.0014,"percentile":0.03354,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"low","text":"Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.14%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/30386e090c49e803c0616a7147e43409c32a2b0e","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/33ff5c207c873215e54e6176624ed57423cb7dea","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5979338c83012110ccd45cae6517591770bfe536","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5de7ad7e18356e39e8fbf7edd185a5faaf4f385a","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac782f4e3bfcde145b8a7f8af31d9422d94d172a","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e3fc381320d04e4a74311e576a86cac49a16fc43","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ee4183501ea556dca31f5ffd8690aa9fd25b609f","tags":["Patch"],"source":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html","source":"0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e"},{"url":"https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-457936.html","source":"0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71097","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}