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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2025-39874 json

macsec: sync features on RTM_NEWLINK

published 2025-09-23 13 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2025-30856

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.16.8, 6.17
  • linux Debian 14 6.16.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39874

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-39874 updated

kernel: macsec: sync features on RTM_NEWLINK

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
9 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.13% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.