CVE-2025-39874

CVE-2025-39874

Medium · published September 23, 2025

CVSS v3.1
5.5
EPSS
0%
Percentile
2.5
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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

macsec: sync features on RTM_NEWLINK

Syzkaller managed to lock the lower device via ETHTOOL_SFEATURES:

netdev_lock include/linux/netdevice.h:2761 [inline]

netdev_lock_ops include/net/netdev_lock.h:42 [inline]

netdev_sync_lower_features net/core/dev.c:10649 [inline]

__netdev_update_features+0xcb1/0x1be0 net/core/dev.c:10819

netdev_update_features+0x6d/0xe0 net/core/dev.c:10876

macsec_notify+0x2f5/0x660 drivers/net/macsec.c:4533

notifier_call_chain+0x1b3/0x3e0 kernel/notifier.c:85

call_netdevice_notifiers_extack net/core/dev.c:2267 [inline]

call_netdevice_notifiers net/core/dev.c:2281 [inline]

netdev_features_change+0x85/0xc0 net/core/dev.c:1570

__dev_ethtool net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3469 [inline]

dev_ethtool+0x1536/0x19b0 net/ethtool/ioctl.c:3502

dev_ioctl+0x392/0x1150 net/core/dev_ioctl.c:759

It happens because lower features are out of sync with the upper:

__dev_ethtool (real_dev)

netdev_lock_ops(real_dev)

ETHTOOL_SFEATURES

__netdev_features_change

netdev_sync_upper_features

disable LRO on the lower

if (old_features != dev->features)

netdev_features_change

fires NETDEV_FEAT_CHANGE

macsec_notify

NETDEV_FEAT_CHANGE

netdev_update_features (for each macsec dev)

netdev_sync_lower_features

if (upper_features != lower_features)

netdev_lock_ops(lower) # lower == real_dev

stuck

...

netdev_unlock_ops(real_dev)

Per commit af5f54b0ef9e ("net: Lock lower level devices when updating

features"), we elide the lock/unlock when the upper and lower features

are synced. Makes sure the lower (real_dev) has proper features after

the macsec link has been created. This makes sure we never hit the

situation where we need to sync upper flags to the lower.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.5 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00131 · 2.5th percentile
Published
2025-09-23T10:15Z
Affected products (6)
ProductVersionsFixed in
linux/linux_kernel≥ 6.15, < 6.16.86.16.8
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
References (2)
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 23 SEP 06:00Z
    macsec: sync features on RTM_NEWLINK
    cvelistv5