# CVE-2025-39949: qed: Don't collect too many protection override GRC elements

> A buffer overflow in the Linux kernel qed driver allows a remote attacker to cause a system crash via crafted firmware responses.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 4 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-68157, AZL-75345, BELL-CVE-2025-39949, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39949, GHSA-ph27-9pw7-jv35, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-39949, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-39949, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-39949, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-39949, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-39949, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39949

## What is CVE-2025-39949?

CVE-2025-39949 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 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:

qed: Don't collect too many protection override GRC elements

In the protection override dump path, the firmware can return far too
many GRC elements, resulting in attempting to write past the end of the
previously-kmalloc'ed dump buffer.

This will result in a kernel panic with reason:

 BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at ADDRESS

where "ADDRESS" is just past the end of the protection override dump
buffer. The start address of the buffer is:
 p_hwfn->cdev->dbg_features[DBG_FEATURE_PROTECTION_OVERRIDE].dump_buf
and the size of the buffer is buf_size in the same data structure.

The panic can be arrived at from either the qede Ethernet driver path:

    [exception RIP: qed_grc_dump_addr_range+0x108]
 qed_protection_override_dump at ffffffffc02662ed [qed]
 qed_dbg_protection_override_dump at ffffffffc0267792 [qed]
 qed_dbg_feature at ffffffffc026aa8f [qed]
 qed_dbg_all_data at ffffffffc026b211 [qed]
 qed_fw_fatal_reporter_dump at ffffffffc027298a [qed]
 devlink_health_do_dump at ffffffff82497f61
 devlink_health_report at ffffffff8249cf29
 qed_report_fatal_error at ffffffffc0272baf [qed]
 qede_sp_task at ffffffffc045ed32 [qede]
 process_one_work at ffffffff81d19783

or the qedf storage driver path:

    [exception RIP: qed_grc_dump_addr_range+0x108]
 qed_protection_override_dump at ffffffffc068b2ed [qed]
 qed_dbg_protection_override_dump at ffffffffc068c792 [qed]
 qed_dbg_feature at ffffffffc068fa8f [qed]
 qed_dbg_all_data at ffffffffc0690211 [qed]
 qed_fw_fatal_reporter_dump at ffffffffc069798a [qed]
 devlink_health_do_dump at ffffffff8aa95e51
 devlink_health_report at ffffffff8aa9ae19
 qed_report_fatal_error at ffffffffc0697baf [qed]
 qed_hw_err_notify at ffffffffc06d32d7 [qed]
 qed_spq_post at ffffffffc06b1011 [qed]
 qed_fcoe_destroy_conn at ffffffffc06b2e91 [qed]
 qedf_cleanup_fcport at ffffffffc05e7597 [qedf]
 qedf_rport_event_handler at ffffffffc05e7bf7 [qedf]
 fc_rport_work at ffffffffc02da715 [libfc]
 process_one_work at ffffffff8a319663

Resolve this by clamping the firmware's return value to the maximum
number of legal elements the firmware should return.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39949?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-39949?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-39949 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39949 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-2025-39949 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-39949 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Oct 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-2025-39949 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-2025-39949/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39949/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39949
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39949
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39949

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39949/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.