MediumCVE-2025-68220

    Linux Kernel: security vulnerability (CVE-2025-68220)

    Published Last modified Sources: BSI, EUVD, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav_dma_open_channel to return NULL on error Make knav_dma_open_channel consistently return NULL on error instead of ERR_PTR. Currently the header include/linux/soc/ti/knav_dma.h returns NULL when the driver is disabled, but the driver implementation does not even return NULL or ERR_PTR on failure, causing inconsistency in the users.

    Update Linux Kernel to version 5.4.302, Linux Kernel to version 5.10.247, Linux Kernel to version 5.15.197.

    Affected
    • Linux Kernel lt 3.18..5.4.302
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.5..5.10.247
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.11..5.15.197
    • Linux Kernel lt 5.16..6.1.159
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.2..6.6.118
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.7..6.12.60
    • Linux Kernel lt 6.13..6.17.10
    Fixed in
    • Linux Kernel 5.4.302
    • Linux Kernel 5.10.247
    • Linux Kernel 5.15.197
    • Linux Kernel 6.1.159
    • Linux Kernel 6.6.118
    • Linux Kernel 6.12.60
    • Linux Kernel 6.17.10
    • Linux Kernel 6.18

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    6.2

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3

    6.2

    CVSS v3

    Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: BSI, EUVD, Msrc Update Guide, CVE.org

    0.2 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 10.6

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Medium
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    44.90 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    6.2 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    6.2
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.2 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    10.6
    Elevated — this CVE ranks above at least 10% of all CVEs scored today.
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav_dma_open_channel to return NULL on error Make knav_dma_open_channel consistently return NULL on error instead of ERR_PTR. Currently the header include/linux/soc/ti/knav_dma.h returns NULL when the driver is disabled, but the driver implementation does not even return NULL or ERR_PTR on failure, causing inconsistency in the users. This results in a crash in netcp_free_navigator_resources as followed (trimmed): Unhandled fault: alignment exception (0x221) at 0xfffffff2 [fffffff2] *pgd=80000800207003, *pmd=82ffda003, *pte=00000000 Internal error: : 221 [#1] SMP ARM Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc7 #1 NONE Hardware name: Keystone PC is at knav_dma_close_channel+0x30/0x19c LR is at netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c [... TRIM...] Call trace: knav_dma_close_channel from netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c netcp_free_navigator_resources from netcp_ndo_open+0x430/0x46c netcp_ndo_open from __dev_open+0x114/0x29c __dev_open from __dev_change_flags+0x190/0x208 __dev_change_flags from netif_change_flags+0x1c/0x58 netif_change_flags from dev_change_flags+0x38/0xa0 dev_change_flags from ip_auto_config+0x2c4/0x11f0 ip_auto_config from do_one_initcall+0x58/0x200 do_one_initcall from kernel_init_freeable+0x1cc/0x238 kernel_init_freeable from kernel_init+0x1c/0x12c kernel_init from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38 [... TRIM...] Standardize the error handling by making the function return NULL on all error conditions. The API is used in just the netcp_core.c so the impact is limited. Note, this change, in effect reverts commit 5b6cb43b4d62 ("net: ethernet: ti: netcp_core: return error while dma channel open issue"), but provides a less error prone implementation.

    Source: BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF, ENISA EUVD, Microsoft Security Update Guide, cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
    LinuxLinux
    • 6.7 – < 6.12.60
    • —
    • 3.18 – < 5.4.302
    • 5.5 – < 5.10.247
    • 6.13 – < 6.17.10
    • 5.16 – < 6.1.159
    • 6.2 – < 6.6.118
    • 5.11 – < 5.15.197
    • 6.12.60
    • 6.18
    • 5.4.302
    • 5.10.247
    • 6.17.10
    • 6.1.159
    • 6.6.118
    • 5.15.197

    References & sources

    Reanalysis & status changes

    Chronological NVD audit events for this CVE — reanalyses, CVSS updates, CPE diffs.

    1. CVE Translatednvd@nist.gov

      • Translation: after Title: Linux, Description: En el kernel de Linux, la siguiente vulnerabilidad ha sido resuelta: net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Estandarizar knav_dma_open_channel para que devuelva NULL en caso de error Hacer que knav_dma_open_channel devuelva NULL de forma consistente en caso de error en lugar de ERR_PTR. Actualmente, el encabezado include/linux/soc/ti/knav_dma.h devuelve NULL cuando el controlador está deshabilitado, pero la implementación del controlador ni siquiera devuelve NULL o ERR_PTR en caso de fallo, causando inconsistencia en los usuarios. Esto resulta en un fallo en netcp_free_navigator_resources como se muestra a continuación (recortado): Unhandled fault: alignment exception (0x221) at 0xfffffff2 [fffffff2] pgd=80000800207003, pmd=82ffda003, pte=00000000 Internal error: : 221 [#1] SMP ARM Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc7 #1 NONE Hardware name: Keystone PC is at knav_dma_close_channel+0x30/0x19c LR is at netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c [... RECORTADO...] Traza de llamada: knav_dma_close_channel desde netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c netcp_free_navigator_resources desde netcp_ndo_open+0x430/0x46c netcp_ndo_open desde __dev_open+0x114/0x29c __dev_open desde __dev_change_flags+0x190/0x208 __dev_change_flags desde netif_change_flags+0x1c/0x58 netif_change_flags desde dev_change_flags+0x38/0xa0 dev_change_flags desde ip_auto_config+0x2c4/0x11f0 ip_auto_config desde do_one_initcall+0x58/0x200 do_one_initcall desde kernel_init_freeable+0x1cc/0x238 kernel_init_freeable desde kernel_init+0x1c/0x12c kernel_init desde ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38 [... RECORTADO...] Estandarizar el manejo de errores haciendo que la función devuelva NULL en todas las condiciones de error. La API se utiliza solo en netcp_core.c, por lo que el impacto es limitado. Tenga en cuenta que este cambio, en efecto, revierte el commit 5b6cb43b4d62 ('net: ethernet: ti: netcp_core: return error while dma channel open issue'), pero proporciona una implementación menos propensa a errores.
    Embed badge

    Show the severity and KEV status of this vulnerability on your site – with a link back here. The image is updated hourly.

    Badge preview for CVE-2025-68220
    <a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2025-68220"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2025-68220.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2025-68220 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>