Bug 2418890 (CVE-2025-40255)

Summary: CVE-2025-40255 kernel: net: core: prevent NULL deref in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-12-04 17:03:20 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net: core: prevent NULL deref in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower()

The ethtool tsconfig Netlink path can trigger a null pointer
dereference. A call chain such as:

  tsconfig_prepare_data() ->
  dev_get_hwtstamp_phylib() ->
  vlan_hwtstamp_get() ->
  generic_hwtstamp_get_lower() ->
  generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower()

results in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower() being called with
kernel_cfg->ifr as NULL.

The generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower() function does not expect
a NULL ifr and dereferences it, leading to a system crash.

Fix this by adding a NULL check for kernel_cfg->ifr in
generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower(). If ifr is NULL, return -EINVAL.
Comment 1 Jon Moroney 2025-12-04 17:39:01 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025120432-CVE-2025-40255-55aa@gregkh/T