CVE-2025-21862drop_monitor: fix incorrect initialization order

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drop_monitor: fix incorrect initialization order Syzkaller reports the following bug: BUG: spinlock bad magic on CPU#1, syz-executor.0/7995 lock: 0xffff88805303f3e0, .magic: 00000000, .owner: <none>/-1, .owner_cpu: 0 CPU: 1 PID: 7995 Comm: syz-executor.0 Tainted: G E 5.10.209+ #1 Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 11/12/2020 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:77 [inline] dump_stack+0x119/0x179 lib/dump_stack.c:118 debug_spin_lock_before kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:83 [inline] do_raw_spin_lock+0x1f6/0x270 kernel/locking/spinlock_debug.c:112 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:117 [inline] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x50/0x70 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:159 reset_per_cpu_data+0xe6/0x240 [drop_monitor] net_dm_cmd_trace+0x43d/0x17a0 [drop_monitor] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x22f/0x330 net/netlink/genetlink.c:739 genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:783 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x341/0x5a0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:800 netlink_rcv_skb+0x14d/0x440 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2497 genl_rcv+0x29/0x40 net/netlink/genetlink.c:811 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1322 [inline] netlink_unicast+0x54b/0x800 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1348 netlink_sendmsg+0x914/0xe00 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1916 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:651 [inline] __sock_sendmsg+0x157/0x190 net/socket.c:663 ____sys_sendmsg+0x712/0x870 net/socket.c:2378 ___sys_sendmsg+0xf8/0x170 net/socket.c:2432 __sys_sendmsg+0xea/0x1b0 net/socket.c:2461 do_syscall_64+0x30/0x40 arch/x86/entry/common.c:46 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x62/0xc7 RIP: 0033:0x7f3f9815aee9 Code: ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b0 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007f3f972bf0c8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002e RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f3f9826d050 RCX: 00007f3f9815aee9 RDX: 0000000020000000 RSI: 0000000020001300 RDI: 0000000000000007 RBP: 00007f3f981b63bd R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: 000000000000006e R14: 00007f3f9826d050 R15: 00007ffe01ee6768 If drop_monitor is built as a kernel module, syzkaller may have time to send a netlink NET_DM_CMD_START message during the module loading. This will call the net_dm_monitor_start() function that uses a spinlock that has not yet been initialized. To fix this, let's place resource initialization above the registration of a generic netlink family. Found by InfoTeCS on behalf of Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

CVSS

5.5 MEDIUM (v3.1, CISA ADP)CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness (CWE)

CWE-908

Known exploited

Not in CISA's KEV catalog

EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)

Not loaded for this CVE

Assigned by

Linux

NVD analysis

Modified

Record last updated

Oct 15, 2026

First seen by InfoSec Signals

Oct 15, 2026

The CVE record on cve.org · NVD's entry

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