# CVE-2025-68215: ice: fix PTP cleanup on driver removal in error path

> A missing cleanup in the Linux kernel ice driver error path causes a use-after-free condition, leading to a system crash or warning during driver removal.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68215, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68215, GHSA-xq58-x87q-vfg7, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68215, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68215

## What is CVE-2025-68215?

CVE-2025-68215 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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:

ice: fix PTP cleanup on driver removal in error path

Improve the cleanup on releasing PTP resources in error path.
The error case might happen either at the driver probe and PTP
feature initialization or on PTP restart (errors in reset handling, NVM
update etc). In both cases, calls to PF PTP cleanup (ice_ptp_cleanup_pf
function) and 'ps_lock' mutex deinitialization were missed.
Additionally, ptp clock was not unregistered in the latter case.

Keep PTP state as 'uninitialized' on init to distinguish between error
scenarios and to avoid resource release duplication at driver removal.

The consequence of missing ice_ptp_cleanup_pf call is the following call
trace dumped when ice_adapter object is freed (port list is not empty,
as it is required at this stage):

[  T93022] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[  T93022] WARNING: CPU: 10 PID: 93022 at
ice/ice_adapter.c:67 ice_adapter_put+0xef/0x100 [ice]
...
[  T93022] RIP: 0010:ice_adapter_put+0xef/0x100 [ice]
...
[  T93022] Call Trace:
[  T93022]  <TASK>
[  T93022]  ? ice_adapter_put+0xef/0x100 [ice
33d2647ad4f6d866d41eefff1806df37c68aef0c]
[  T93022]  ? __warn.cold+0xb0/0x10e
[  T93022]  ? ice_adapter_put+0xef/0x100 [ice
33d2647ad4f6d866d41eefff1806df37c68aef0c]
[  T93022]  ? report_bug+0xd8/0x150
[  T93022]  ? handle_bug+0xe9/0x110
[  T93022]  ? exc_invalid_op+0x17/0x70
[  T93022]  ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20
[  T93022]  ? ice_adapter_put+0xef/0x100 [ice
33d2647ad4f6d866d41eefff1806df37c68aef0c]
[  T93022]  pci_device_remove+0x42/0xb0
[  T93022]  device_release_driver_internal+0x19f/0x200
[  T93022]  driver_detach+0x48/0x90
[  T93022]  bus_remove_driver+0x70/0xf0
[  T93022]  pci_unregister_driver+0x42/0xb0
[  T93022]  ice_module_exit+0x10/0xdb0 [ice
33d2647ad4f6d866d41eefff1806df37c68aef0c]
...
[  T93022] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
[  T93022] ice: module unloaded

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68215?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68215?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68215 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68215 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68215 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68215 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 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-2025-68215 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2025-68215/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68215/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68215
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68215
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68215

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68215/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.