CVE-2025-39988 json
can: etas_es58x: populate ndo_change_mtu() to prevent buffer overflow
published last yr. modified 21d ago also EUVD-2025-34584
- 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: etas_es58x: 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 etas_es58x 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, es58x_start_xmit() receives a CAN XL frame which it is not able to correctly handle and will thus misinterpret it as a CAN(FD) frame.
This can result in a buffer overflow. For example, using the es581.4 variant, the frame will be dispatched to es581_4_tx_can_msg(), go through the last check at the beginning of this function:
if (can_is_canfd_skb(skb)) return -EMSGSIZE;
and reach this line:
memcpy(tx_can_msg->data, cf->data, 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!
Populate net_device_ops->ndo_change_mtu() to ensure that the interface's MTU can not be set to anything bigger than CAN_MTU or CANFD_MTU (depending on the device capabilities). By fixing the root cause, this prevents the buffer overflow.
Patch / fix
- Linux Linux 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-2025-39988
- 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-2025-39988
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
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/72de0facc50afdb101fb7197d880407f1abfc77f commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4e582e686c4d683c87f2b4a316385b3d81d370f commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/cbc1de71766f326a44bb798aeae4a7ef4a081cc9 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/b26cccd87dcddc47b450a40f3b1ac3fe346efcff commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/e587af2c89ecc6382c518febea52fa9ba81e47c0 commit
- git.kernel.org/stable/c/38c0abad45b190a30d8284a37264d2127a6ec303 commit
Is CVE-2025-39988 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.
Check with FencerVendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2025-39988 updated
kernel: can: etas_es58x: 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 kernelnot 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, 2026-11-09).
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
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/72de0facc50afdb101fb7197d880407f1abfc77f
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/c4e582e686c4d683c87f2b4a316385b3d81d370f
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/cbc1de71766f326a44bb798aeae4a7ef4a081cc9
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/b26cccd87dcddc47b450a40f3b1ac3fe346efcff
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/e587af2c89ecc6382c518febea52fa9ba81e47c0
- git.kernel.org /stable/c/38c0abad45b190a30d8284a37264d2127a6ec303
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2025-39988
- NVD CVE-2025-39988
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