---
id: CVE-2025-71157
title: 'RDMA/core: always drop device refcount in ib_del_sub_device_and_put()'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  RDMA/core: always drop device refcount in ib_del_sub_device_and_put()

  Since nldev_deldev() (introduced by commit 060c642b2ab8 ("RDMA/nldev: Add
  support to add/delete a…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= bca51197620a257e2954be99b16f05115c3b2630 <
    20436f2742a92b7afeb2504eb559a98d2196b001
  - >-
    Linux >= bca51197620a257e2954be99b16f05115c3b2630 <
    fe8d456080423b9ed410469fbd1e2098d3acce2b
  - >-
    Linux >= bca51197620a257e2954be99b16f05115c3b2630 <
    fa3c411d21ebc26ffd175c7256c37cefa35020aa
  - Linux 6.11
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-11-05T21:14:51.218074Z'
published: '2026-01-23'
updated: '2026-11-05'
sourceUpdated: '2026-11-05T21:23:09.820Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71157'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/20436f2742a92b7afeb2504eb559a98d2196b001'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fe8d456080423b9ed410469fbd1e2098d3acce2b'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fa3c411d21ebc26ffd175c7256c37cefa35020aa'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00142
epssPercentile: 0.03548
ingestedAt: '2026-11-05T22:38:32.053Z'
---

## Overview

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

RDMA/core: always drop device refcount in ib_del_sub_device_and_put()

Since nldev_deldev() (introduced by commit 060c642b2ab8 ("RDMA/nldev: Add
support to add/delete a sub IB device through netlink") grabs a reference
using ib_device_get_by_index() before calling ib_del_sub_device_and_put(),
we need to drop that reference before returning -EOPNOTSUPP error.

## Affected

- `Linux >= bca51197620a257e2954be99b16f05115c3b2630 < 20436f2742a92b7afeb2504eb559a98d2196b001`
- `Linux >= bca51197620a257e2954be99b16f05115c3b2630 < fe8d456080423b9ed410469fbd1e2098d3acce2b`
- `Linux >= bca51197620a257e2954be99b16f05115c3b2630 < fa3c411d21ebc26ffd175c7256c37cefa35020aa`
- `Linux 6.11`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.