# CVE-2025-68220: net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav_dma_open_channel to return NULL on error

> A null pointer dereference in the TI NetCP driver causes a kernel crash during network interface initialization, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68220, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68220, GHSA-89f8-gjh9-jgr6, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68220, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68220, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68220, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68220, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68220

## What is CVE-2025-68220?

CVE-2025-68220 is a 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:

net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav_dma_open_channel to return NULL on error

Make knav_dma_open_channel consistently return NULL on error instead
of ERR_PTR. Currently the header include/linux/soc/ti/knav_dma.h
returns NULL when the driver is disabled, but the driver
implementation does not even return NULL or ERR_PTR on failure,
causing inconsistency in the users. This results in a crash in
netcp_free_navigator_resources as followed (trimmed):

Unhandled fault: alignment exception (0x221) at 0xfffffff2
[fffffff2] *pgd=80000800207003, *pmd=82ffda003, *pte=00000000
Internal error: : 221 [#1] SMP ARM
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc7 #1 NONE
Hardware name: Keystone
PC is at knav_dma_close_channel+0x30/0x19c
LR is at netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c

[... TRIM...]

Call trace:
 knav_dma_close_channel from netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c
 netcp_free_navigator_resources from netcp_ndo_open+0x430/0x46c
 netcp_ndo_open from __dev_open+0x114/0x29c
 __dev_open from __dev_change_flags+0x190/0x208
 __dev_change_flags from netif_change_flags+0x1c/0x58
 netif_change_flags from dev_change_flags+0x38/0xa0
 dev_change_flags from ip_auto_config+0x2c4/0x11f0
 ip_auto_config from do_one_initcall+0x58/0x200
 do_one_initcall from kernel_init_freeable+0x1cc/0x238
 kernel_init_freeable from kernel_init+0x1c/0x12c
 kernel_init from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38
[... TRIM...]

Standardize the error handling by making the function return NULL on
all error conditions. The API is used in just the netcp_core.c so the
impact is limited.

Note, this change, in effect reverts commit 5b6cb43b4d62 ("net:
ethernet: ti: netcp_core: return error while dma channel open issue"),
but provides a less error prone implementation.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68220?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68220?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68220 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68220 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68220 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68220 is a 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-2025-68220 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-2025-68220/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68220/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68220
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68220
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68220

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68220/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.