Kernel crash via uninitialized ndev dereference
Published Sep 19, 2025 · Updated Sep 19, 2025
NULL pointer dereference in affected Linux kernels allows local users to crash the kernel through the TI CPSW2G transmit-completion path. The transmit-completion handler in drivers/net/ethernet/ti/am65-cpsw-nuss.c dereferences ndev before initialization when no transmit packets were processed. Reachability requires local low-privileged access and a TI SoC CPSW2G instance with one external Ethernet port; the resulting NULL dereference crashes the host kernel.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in affected Linux kernels allows local users to crash the kernel through the TI CPSW2G transmit-completion path. The transmit-completion handler in drivers/net/ethernet/ti/am65-cpsw-nuss.c dereferences ndev before initialization when no transmit packets were processed. Reachability requires local low-privileged access and a TI SoC CPSW2G instance with one external Ethernet port; the resulting NULL dereference crashes the host kernel.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-39856
- Published
- Sep 19, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 19, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 19, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 19, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.15
- Affected versionversion=9a369ae3d1431a83589dde57323a04692dd7fc12 <485302905bada953aadfe063320d73c892a66cbb
- Affected versionversion=9a369ae3d1431a83589dde57323a04692dd7fc12 <a6099f263e1f408bcc7913c9df24b0677164fc5d
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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