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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2025-39986 json

can: sun4i_can: populate ndo_change_mtu() to prevent buffer overflow

published 2025-10-15 12 mo ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2025-34586

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

can: sun4i_can: populate ndo_change_mtu() to prevent buffer overflow

Sending an PF_PACKET allows to bypass the CAN framework logic and to directly reach the xmit() function of a CAN driver. The only check which is performed by the PF_PACKET framework is to make sure that skb->len fits the interface's MTU.

Unfortunately, because the sun4i_can driver does not populate its net_device_ops->ndo_change_mtu(), it is possible for an attacker to configure an invalid MTU by doing, for example:

$ ip link set can0 mtu 9999

After doing so, the attacker could open a PF_PACKET socket using the ETH_P_CANXL protocol:

socket(PF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_CANXL))

to inject a malicious CAN XL frames. For example:

struct canxl_frame frame = { .flags = 0xff, .len = 2048, };

The CAN drivers' xmit() function are calling can_dev_dropped_skb() to check that the skb is valid, unfortunately under above conditions, the malicious packet is able to go through can_dev_dropped_skb() checks:

1. the skb->protocol is set to ETH_P_CANXL which is valid (the function does not check the actual device capabilities).

2. the length is a valid CAN XL length.

And so, sun4ican_start_xmit() receives a CAN XL frame which it is not able to correctly handle and will thus misinterpret it as a CAN frame.

This can result in a buffer overflow. The driver will consume cf->len as-is with no further checks on this line:

dlc = cf->len;

Here, cf->len corresponds to the flags field of the CAN XL frame. In our previous example, we set canxl_frame->flags to 0xff. Because the maximum expected length is 8, a buffer overflow of 247 bytes occurs a couple line below when doing:

for (i = 0; i < dlc; i++) writel(cf->data[i], priv->base + (dreg + i * 4));

Populate net_device_ops->ndo_change_mtu() to ensure that the interface's MTU can not be set to anything bigger than CAN_MTU. By fixing the root cause, this prevents the buffer overflow.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.4.300, 5.10.245, 5.15.194, 6.1.155, 6.6.109, 6.12.50, 6.16.10, 6.17
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.158-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.57-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.16.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39986

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-170.180
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-106.106
  • linux Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-6.6
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1100.107
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1050.53
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-1003.3
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1100.109
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1052.55

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39986

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.7.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:4301-1SUSE-SU-2025:21080-1SUSE-SU-2025:21147-1SUSE-SU-2025:21180-1SUSE-SU-2026:20561-1SUSE-SU-2025:21052-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.7.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:20091-1

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-2025-39986 updated

kernel: can: sun4i_can: populate ndo_change_mtu() to prevent buffer overflow

  • 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

Exploit prediction

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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