# CVE-2025-38272: net: dsa: b53: do not enable EEE on bcm63xx

> A Linux kernel bug in the b53 driver causes system hangs when enabling EEE on unsupported BCM63xx switches, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 10 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-65006, AZL-70654, BELL-CVE-2025-38272, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38272, GHSA-5gh2-95vw-62h6, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38272, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38272, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38272, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-38272, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-38272, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38272

## What is CVE-2025-38272?

CVE-2025-38272 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Jul 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: dsa: b53: do not enable EEE on bcm63xx

BCM63xx internal switches do not support EEE, but provide multiple RGMII
ports where external PHYs may be connected. If one of these PHYs are EEE
capable, we may try to enable EEE for the MACs, which then hangs the
system on access of the (non-existent) EEE registers.

Fix this by checking if the switch actually supports EEE before
attempting to configure it.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38272?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38272?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38272 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38272 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38272 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38272 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38272 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38272/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38272/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38272
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38272
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38272

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38272/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.