# CVE-2025-68301: net: atlantic: fix fragment overflow handling in RX path

> A missing bounds check in the Atlantic network driver allows out-of-bounds writes, causing kernel panics and denial of service.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-72652, BELL-CVE-2025-68301, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68301, GHSA-xx64-5wwx-9g36, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68301, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68301, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68301, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68301, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68301

## What is CVE-2025-68301?

CVE-2025-68301 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

net: atlantic: fix fragment overflow handling in RX path

The atlantic driver can receive packets with more than MAX_SKB_FRAGS (17)
fragments when handling large multi-descriptor packets. This causes an
out-of-bounds write in skb_add_rx_frag_netmem() leading to kernel panic.

The issue occurs because the driver doesn't check the total number of
fragments before calling skb_add_rx_frag(). When a packet requires more
than MAX_SKB_FRAGS fragments, the fragment index exceeds the array bounds.

Fix by assuming there will be an extra frag if buff->len > AQ_CFG_RX_HDR_SIZE,
then all fragments are accounted for. And reusing the existing check to
prevent the overflow earlier in the code path.

This crash occurred in production with an Aquantia AQC113 10G NIC.

Stack trace from production environment:
```
RIP: 0010:skb_add_rx_frag_netmem+0x29/0xd0
Code: 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 89 f8 41 89
ca 48 89 d7 48 63 ce 8b 90 c0 00 00 00 48 c1 e1 04 48 01 ca 48 03 90
c8 00 00 00 <48> 89 7a 30 44 89 52 3c 44 89 42 38 40 f6 c7 01 75 74 48
89 fa 83
RSP: 0018:ffffa9bec02a8d50 EFLAGS: 00010287
RAX: ffff925b22e80a00 RBX: ffff925ad38d2700 RCX:
fffffffe0a0c8000
RDX: ffff9258ea95bac0 RSI: ffff925ae0a0c800 RDI:
0000000000037a40
RBP: 0000000000000024 R08: 0000000000000000 R09:
0000000000000021
R10: 0000000000000848 R11: 0000000000000000 R12:
ffffa9bec02a8e24
R13: ffff925ad8615570 R14: 0000000000000000 R15:
ffff925b22e80a00
FS: 0000000000000000(0000)
GS:ffff925e47880000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: ffff9258ea95baf0 CR3: 0000000166022004 CR4:
0000000000f72ef0
PKRU: 55555554
Call Trace:
<IRQ>
aq_ring_rx_clean+0x175/0xe60 [atlantic]
? aq_ring_rx_clean+0x14d/0xe60 [atlantic]
? aq_ring_tx_clean+0xdf/0x190 [atlantic]
? kmem_cache_free+0x348/0x450
? aq_vec_poll+0x81/0x1d0 [atlantic]
? __napi_poll+0x28/0x1c0
? net_rx_action+0x337/0x420
```

Changes in v4:
- Add Fixes: tag to satisfy patch validation requirements.

Changes in v3:
- Fix by assuming there will be an extra frag if buff->len > AQ_CFG_RX_HDR_SIZE,
  then all fragments are accounted for.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68301?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68301?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68301 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68301 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68301 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68301 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68301 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-2025-68301/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68301/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68301
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68301
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68301

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68301/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.