CVE-2025-39855: linux kernel Use-After-Free — Fix

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ice: fix NULL access of tx->in_use in ice_ptp_ts_irq The E810 device has support for a "low latency" firmware interface to access and read the Tx timestamps. This interface does not use the standard Tx timestamp logic, due to the latency overhead of proxying sideband command requests over the firmware AdminQ. The logic still makes use of the Tx timestamp tracking structure, ice_ptp_tx, as it uses the same "ready" bitmap to track which Tx timestamps complete. Unfortunately, the ice_ptp_ts_irq() function does not check if the tracker is initialized before its first access. This results in NULL dereference or use-after-free bugs similar to the following: [245977.278756] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [245977.278774] RIP: 0010:_find_first_bit+0x19/0x40 [245977.278796] Call Trace: [245977.278809] ? ice_misc_intr+0x364/0x380 [ice] This can occur if a Tx timestamp interrupt races with the driver reset logic. Fix this by only checking the in_use bitmap (and other fields) if the tracker is marked as initialized. The reset flow will clear the init field under lock before it tears the tracker down, thus preventing any use-after-free or NULL access.

Is your site exposed to CVE-2025-39855?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

7.8

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-416 Use After Free

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
linux	linux_kernel	6.15 — 6.16.6
linux	linux_kernel	All
linux	linux_kernel	All
linux	linux_kernel	All
linux	linux_kernel	All

References

Advisories & Patches

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1467a873b20110263cc9c93de99335d139c11e16 https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/403bf043d9340196e06769065169df7444b91f7a

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-39855? +

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ice: fix NULL access of tx->in_use in ice_ptp_ts_irq The E810 device has support for a "low latency" firmware interface to access and read the Tx timestamps. This interface does not use the standard Tx timestamp logic, due to the latency overhead of proxying sideband command requests over the firmware AdminQ. The logic still makes use of the Tx timestamp tracking structure, ice_ptp_tx, as it uses the same "ready" bitmap to track which Tx timestamps complete. Unfortunately, the ice_ptp_ts_irq() function does not check if the tracker is initialized before its first access. This results in NULL dereference or use-after-free bugs similar to the following: [245977.278756] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [245977.278774] RIP: 0010:_find_first_bit+0x19/0x40 [245977.278796] Call Trace: [245977.278809] ? ice_misc_intr+0x364/0x380 [ice] This can occur if a Tx timestamp interrupt races with the driver reset logic. Fix this by only checking the in_use bitmap (and other fields) if the tracker is marked as initialized. The reset flow will clear the init field under lock before it tears the tracker down, thus preventing any use-after-free or NULL access. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2025-39855? +

CVE-2025-39855 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching.

What products are affected by CVE-2025-39855? +

CVE-2025-39855 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-39855? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-6040

A heap use-after-free existed when importing the blank-width characters of an ODF number format. A position value read from the …

CVE-2025-24898

rust-openssl is a set of OpenSSL bindings for the Rust programming language. In affected versions `ssl::select_next_proto` can return a slice …

CVE-2025-31115

XZ Utils provide a general-purpose data-compression library plus command-line tools. In XZ Utils 5.3.3alpha to 5.8.0, the multithreaded .xz decoder …

CVE-2025-31498

c-ares is an asynchronous resolver library. From 1.32.3 through 1.34.4, there is a use-after-free in read_answers() when process_answer() may re-enqueue …

CVE-2025-4516

There is an issue in CPython when using `bytes.decode("unicode_escape", error="ignore|replace")`. If you are not using the "unicode_escape" encoding or an …

CVE-2025-5991

There is a "Use After Free" vulnerability in Qt's QHttp2ProtocolHandler in the QtNetwork module. This only affects HTTP/2 handling, HTTP …

CVE-2025-39855