CVE-2025-39908: net: dev_ioctl: take ops lock in hwtstamp lower paths

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-10-01 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: dev_ioctl: take ops lock in hwtstamp lower paths ndo hwtstamp callbacks are expected to run under the per-device ops lock. Make the lower get/set paths consistent with the rest of ndo invocations. Kernel log: WARNING: CPU: 13 PID: 51364 at ./include/net/netdev_lock.h:70 __netdev_update_features+0x4bd/0xe60 ... RIP: 0010:__netdev_update_features+0x4bd/0xe60 ... Call Trace: <TASK> netdev_update_features+0x1f/0x60 mlx5_hwtstamp_set+0x181/0x290 [mlx5_core] mlx5e_hwtstamp_set+0x19/0x30 [mlx5_core] dev_set_hwtstamp_phylib+0x9f/0x220 dev_set_hwtstamp_phylib+0x9f/0x220 dev_set_hwtstamp+0x13d/0x240 dev_ioctl+0x12f/0x4b0 sock_ioctl+0x171/0x370 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x3f7/0x900 ? __sys_setsockopt+0x69/0xb0 do_syscall_64+0x6f/0x2e0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 ... </TASK> .... ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Note that the mlx5_hwtstamp_set and mlx5e_hwtstamp_set functions shown in the trace come from an in progress patch converting the legacy ioctl to ndo_hwtstamp_get/set and are not present in mainline.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.15 before 6.16.8; 6.17-rc1, 6.17-rc2, 6.17-rc3, 6.17-rc4, 6.17-rc5 — fixed in 6.16.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.16.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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