CVE-2025-38331net: ethernet: cortina: Use TOE/TSO on all TCP
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 0.36%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 69% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
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.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Linux
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Published
- 13 months later
· 13 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinuxCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium5.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.36% · top 69% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
- affected 4d5ae32f5e1e13f7f36d6439ec3257993b9f5b88 – < 1b503b790109d19710ec83c589c3ee59e95347ec
- affected 4d5ae32f5e1e13f7f36d6439ec3257993b9f5b88 – < a37888a435b0737128d2d9c6f67b8d608f83df7a
- affected 4d5ae32f5e1e13f7f36d6439ec3257993b9f5b88 – < 2bd434bb0eeb680c2b3dd6c68ca319b30cb8d47f
- affected 4d5ae32f5e1e13f7f36d6439ec3257993b9f5b88 – < ebe12e232f1d58ebb4b53b6d9149962b707bed91
- affected 4d5ae32f5e1e13f7f36d6439ec3257993b9f5b88 – < 6a07e3af4973402fa199a80036c10060b922c92c
- affected 4.16
- unaffected < 4.16
- unaffected 6.1.142 – ≤ 6.1.*
- unaffected 6.6.95 – ≤ 6.6.*
- unaffected 6.12.35 – ≤ 6.12.*
- unaffected 6.15.4 – ≤ 6.15.*
- unaffected 6.16 – ≤ *
References
References6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1b503b790109d19710ec83c589c3ee59e95347ec (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a37888a435b0737128d2d9c6f67b8d608f83df7a (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2bd434bb0eeb680c2b3dd6c68ca319b30cb8d47f (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ebe12e232f1d58ebb4b53b6d9149962b707bed91 (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6a07e3af4973402fa199a80036c10060b922c92c (opens in a new tab)
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00008.html (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2025-20915 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-38331)Record last updated .