CVE-2025-21649 net: hns3: fix kernel crash when 1588 is sent on HIP08 devices

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A null pointer dereference in the hns3 network driver causes a kernel crash when sending 1588 packets on HIP08 devices.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Any signed-in user
Attackable
Local or same network only
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2025-21649?

CVE-2025-21649 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Jan 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

net: hns3: fix kernel crash when 1588 is sent on HIP08 devices

Currently, HIP08 devices does not register the ptp devices, so the hdev->ptp is NULL. But the tx process would still try to set hardware time stamp info with SKBTX_HW_TSTAMP flag and cause a kernel crash.

[ 128.087798] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000018 ... [ 128.280251] pc : hclge_ptp_set_tx_info+0x2c/0x140 [hclge] [ 128.286600] lr : hclge_ptp_set_tx_info+0x20/0x140 [hclge] [ 128.292938] sp : ffff800059b93140 [ 128.297200] x29: ffff800059b93140 x28: 0000000000003280 [ 128.303455] x27: ffff800020d48280 x26: ffff0cb9dc814080 [ 128.309715] x25: ffff0cb9cde93fa0 x24: 0000000000000001 [ 128.315969] x23: 0000000000000000 x22: 0000000000000194 [ 128.322219] x21: ffff0cd94f986000 x20: 0000000000000000 [ 128.328462] x19: ffff0cb9d2a166c0 x18: 0000000000000000 [ 128.334698] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffffcf1fc523ed24 [ 128.340934] x15: 0000ffffd530a518 x14: 0000000000000000 [ 128.347162] x13: ffff0cd6bdb31310 x12: 0000000000000368 [ 128.353388] x11: ffff0cb9cfbc7070 x10: ffff2cf55dd11e02 [ 128.359606] x9 : ffffcf1f85a212b4 x8 : ffff0cd7cf27dab0 [ 128.365831] x7 : 0000000000000a20 x6 : ffff0cd7cf27d000 [ 128.372040] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 000000000000ffff [ 128.378243] x3 : 0000000000000400 x2 : ffffcf1f85a21294 [ 128.384437] x1 : ffff0cb9db520080 x0 : ffff0cb9db500080 [ 128.390626] Call trace: [ 128.393964] hclge_ptp_set_tx_info+0x2c/0x140 [hclge] [ 128.399893] hns3_nic_net_xmit+0x39c/0x4c4 [hns3] [ 128.405468] xmit_one.constprop.0+0xc4/0x200 [ 128.410600] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x54/0xf0 [ 128.415556] sch_direct_xmit+0xe8/0x634 [ 128.420246] __dev_queue_xmit+0x224/0xc70 [ 128.425101] dev_queue_xmit+0x1c/0x40 [ 128.429608] ovs_vport_send+0xac/0x1a0 [openvswitch] [ 128.435409] do_output+0x60/0x17c [openvswitch] [ 128.440770] do_execute_actions+0x898/0x8c4 [openvswitch] [ 128.446993] ovs_execute_actions+0x64/0xf0 [openvswitch] [ 128.453129] ovs_dp_process_packet+0xa0/0x224 [openvswitch] [ 128.459530] ovs_vport_receive+0x7c/0xfc [openvswitch] [ 128.465497] internal_dev_xmit+0x34/0xb0 [openvswitch] [ 128.471460] xmit_one.constprop.0+0xc4/0x200 [ 128.476561] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x54/0xf0 [ 128.481489] __dev_queue_xmit+0x968/0xc70 [ 128.486330] dev_queue_xmit+0x1c/0x40 [ 128.490856] ip_finish_output2+0x250/0x570 [ 128.495810] __ip_finish_output+0x170/0x1e0 [ 128.500832] ip_finish_output+0x3c/0xf0 [ 128.505504] ip_output+0xbc/0x160 [ 128.509654] ip_send_skb+0x58/0xd4 [ 128.513892] udp_send_skb+0x12c/0x354 [ 128.518387] udp_sendmsg+0x7a8/0x9c0 [ 128.522793] inet_sendmsg+0x4c/0x8c [ 128.527116] __sock_sendmsg+0x48/0x80 [ 128.531609] __sys_sendto+0x124/0x164 [ 128.536099] __arm64_sys_sendto+0x30/0x5c [ 128.540935] invoke_syscall+0x50/0x130 [ 128.545508] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x10c/0x124 [ 128.551205] do_el0_svc+0x34/0xdc [ 128.555347] el0_svc+0x20/0x30 [ 128.559227] el0_sync_handler+0xb8/0xc0 [ 128.563883] el0_sync+0x160/0x180

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21649?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-21649?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-21649 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21649 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as AZL-56133, AZL-56154, BELL-CVE-2025-21649, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21649, GHSA-67xw-5wfx-qcmc, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-21649 and 2 more.

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