Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2025-38331)
Summary
Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2025-38331). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
net: ethernet: cortina: Use TOE/TSO on all TCP
It is desireable to push the hardware accelerator to also
process non-segmented TCP frames: we pass the skb->len
to the "TOE/TSO" offloader and it will handle them.
Without this quirk the driver becomes unstable and lock
up and and crash.
I do not know exactly why, but it is probably due to the
TOE (TCP offload engine) feature that is coupled with the
segmentation feature - it is not possible to turn one
part off and not the other, either both TOE and TSO are
active, or neither of them.
Not having the TOE part active seems detrimental, as if
that hardware feature is not really supposed to be turned
off.
The datasheet says:
"Based on packet parsing and TCP connection/NAT table
lookup results, the NetEngine puts the packets
belonging to the same TCP connection to the same queue
for the software to process. The NetEngine puts
incoming packets to the buffer or series of buffers
for a jumbo packet. With this hardware acceleration,
IP/TCP header parsing, checksum validation and
connection lookup are offloaded from the software
processing."
After numerous tests with the hardware locking up after
something between minutes and hours depending on load
using iperf3 I have concluded this is necessary to stabilize
the hardware.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-38331 has been found in Linux kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. CVSS score: 7.5/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Linux kernel CVE-2025-38331" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2025-38331 (Linux kernel) — CVSS v3 7.5
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated / no user interaction
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Linux kernel.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Linux kernel.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5/10). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Audit SBOM/dependencies to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
Audit SBOM/dependencies for affected components.資産台帳・SBOM・依存マニフェストで Linux kernel を使っているサービスとバージョンを洗い出す。
-
2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-38331 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.1.143-r1
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38331 linux
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38331 linux
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- package git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web lists.debian.org