Medium severity · published Sep 5, 2025
CVE-2025-38735
gve: prevent ethtool ops after shutdown
5.5
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
gve: prevent ethtool ops after shutdown
A crash can occur if an ethtool operation is invoked
after shutdown() is called.
shutdown() is invoked during system shutdown to stop DMA operations
without performing expensive deallocations. It is discouraged to
unregister the netdev in this path, so the device may still be visible
to userspace and kernel helpers.
In gve, shutdown() tears down most internal data structures. If an
ethtool operation is dispatched after shutdown(), it will dereference
freed or NULL pointers, leading to a kernel panic. While graceful
shutdown normally quiesces userspace before invoking the reboot
syscall, forced shutdowns (as observed on GCP VMs) can still trigger
this path.
Fix by calling netif_device_detach() in shutdown().
This marks the device as detached so the ethtool ioctl handler
will skip dispatching operations to the driver.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 6% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
KE
Kernel · Linux
5.17 before 6.1.149; 6.2 before 6.6.103; 6.7 before 6.12.44; 6.13 before 6.16.4; 6.17; 6.17 · source: NVD
LI
Linux · Linux
974365e518617c9ce917f61aacbba07e4bedcca0 before 48a4e89d50e8ea52e800bc7865970b92fcf4647c; 974365e518617c9ce917f61aacbba07e4bedcca0 before ba51d73408edf815cbaeab148625576c2dd90192; 974365e518617c9ce917f61aacbba07e4bedcca0 before a7efffeecb881b4649fdc30de020ef910f35d646; 974365e518617c9ce917f61aacbba07e4bedcca0 before 9d8a41e9a4ff83ff666de811e7f012167cdc00e9; 974365e518617c9ce917f61aacbba07e4bedcca0 before 75a9a46d67f46d608205888f9b34e315c1786345; 5.17 · source: vendor
DL
Debian Linux · Debian
11.0 · source: NVD
SC
SIMATIC CN 4100 · Siemens
before V5.0 · source: CISA
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38735
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38735
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/48a4e89d50e8ea52e800bc7865970b92fcf4647c
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/75a9a46d67f46d608205888f9b34e315c1786345
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9d8a41e9a4ff83ff666de811e7f012167cdc00e9
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a7efffeecb881b4649fdc30de020ef910f35d646
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ba51d73408edf815cbaeab148625576c2dd90192
Mailing List
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html
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