Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2025-38039

None

CVSS

—

EPSS

0.2%

Published

Jun 18, 2025

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

Linux network drivers were updated to stop printing unnecessary warning messages when two specific traffic settings conflict.

Exploitation
Other
Attacker needs
None
Complexity
Theoretical
Impact
Other
Component
OS kernel
Class
Other
Remediation
Patch
Effort
Low
Patch risk
None

What it actually does

The driver triggers a kernel WARN_ON and call trace returning -EINVAL when MQPRIO is enabled while HTB offload is already configured instead of returning a clean error.

Why it matters to the business

Unnecessary kernel warnings can clutter logs and complicate operations on systems using MLX5 Ethernet drivers, though overall system stability is unaffected.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker or administrator triggers the invalid configuration combination to produce a spurious warning trace; no security impact or privilege escalation is possible.

How to fix it

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing commit 090c0ba179eaf7b670e720aa054533756a43d565 or later equivalent that returns -EOPNOTSUPP with a clear message.

How to confirm the fix worked

Reproduce the conflicting MQPRIO/HTB configuration and confirm absence of WARN_ON traces in dmesg; verify driver source or binary matches the fixed commit.

Typical attack path

  1. Configure HTB offload on an MLX5 interface
  2. Attempt to enable MQPRIO on the same interface
  3. Observe kernel warning and call trace

How to detect it

Search kernel logs (dmesg, syslog) for WARN_ON messages containing mlx5e, MQPRIO, and HTB; no post-exploitation artifacts exist.

What your security team should do

  • Apply the referenced kernel commit or distribution update at next maintenance window
  • Review network offload configurations for HTB/MQPRIO conflicts
  • Suppress or filter known benign mlx5e warnings if immediate patching is delayed

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5e: Avoid WARN_ON when configuring MQPRIO with HTB offload enabled When attempting to enable MQPRIO while HTB offload is already configured, the driver currently returns `-EINVAL` and triggers a `WARN_ON`, leading to an unnecessary call trace. Update the code to handle this case more gracefully by returning `-EOPNOTSUPP` instead, while also providing a helpful user message.

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed
Debian:11 linux 0 No fix
Debian:12 linux 0 No fix
Debian:13 linux 0 6.12.32-1
Linux Kernel 0 6.6.93
Linux Kernel 5.12.0 6.6.93

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