net: ethernet: cortina: Use TOE/TSO on all TCP
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 4.16 and later | 6.1.142, 6.6.95, 6.12.35, 6.15.4, 6.16 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.16 and later Fixed in 6.1.142, 6.6.95, 6.12.35, 6.15.4, 6.16 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.142, 6.6.95, 6.12.35, 6.15.4, 6.16
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-38331
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-78v2-9wxw-73qf
- 2026-11-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Patch 5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b503b790109d19710ec83c589c3ee59e95347ec
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a37888a435b0737128d2d9c6f67b8d608f83df7a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2bd434bb0eeb680c2b3dd6c68ca319b30cb8d47f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ebe12e232f1d58ebb4b53b6d9149962b707bed91
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6a07e3af4973402fa199a80036c10060b922c92c
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2025-38331 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-38331 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-78v2-9wxw-73qf · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-38331 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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