CVE-2025-38122: gve: add missing NULL check for gve_alloc_pending_packet() in TX DQO

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-07-03 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gve: add missing NULL check for gve_alloc_pending_packet() in TX DQO gve_alloc_pending_packet() can return NULL, but gve_tx_add_skb_dqo() did not check for this case before dereferencing the returned pointer. Add a missing NULL check to prevent a potential NULL pointer dereference when allocation fails. This improves robustness in low-memory scenarios.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 11.0
Linux kernel: from 5.14 before 5.15.186; from 5.16 before 6.1.142; from 6.2 before 6.6.94; from 6.7 before 6.12.34; from 6.13 before 6.15.3 — fixed in 5.15.186, 6.1.142, 6.12.34, 6.15.3, 6.6.94

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.186, 6.1.142, 6.12.34, 6.15.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2025-38122 or the next vulnerability affects your stack