CVE-2025-39985

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

can: mcba_usb: populate ndo_change_mtu() to prevent buffer overflow

Sending an PF_PACKET allows to bypass the CAN framework logic and to directly reach the xmit() function of a CAN driver. The only check which is performed by the PF_PACKET framework is to make sure that skb->len fits the interface's MTU.

Unfortunately, because the mcba_usb driver does not populate its net_device_ops->ndo_change_mtu(), it is possible for an attacker to configure an invalid MTU by doing, for example:

$ ip link set can0 mtu 9999

After doing so, the attacker could open a PF_PACKET socket using the ETH_P_CANXL protocol:

socket(PF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, htons(ETH_P_CANXL))

to inject a malicious CAN XL frames. For example:

struct canxl_frame frame = {
	.flags = 0xff,
	.len = 2048,
};

The CAN drivers' xmit() function are calling can_dev_dropped_skb() to check that the skb is valid, unfortunately under above conditions, the malicious packet is able to go through can_dev_dropped_skb() checks:

  1. the skb->protocol is set to ETH_P_CANXL which is valid (the function does not check the actual device capabilities).

  2. the length is a valid CAN XL length.

And so, mcba_usb_start_xmit() receives a CAN XL frame which it is not able to correctly handle and will thus misinterpret it as a CAN frame.

This can result in a buffer overflow. The driver will consume cf->len as-is with no further checks on these lines:

usb_msg.dlc = cf->len;

memcpy(usb_msg.data, cf->data, usb_msg.dlc);

Here, cf->len corresponds to the flags field of the CAN XL frame. In our previous example, we set canxl_frame->flags to 0xff. Because the maximum expected length is 8, a buffer overflow of 247 bytes occurs!

Populate net_device_ops->ndo_change_mtu() to ensure that the interface's MTU can not be set to anything bigger than CAN_MTU. By fixing the root cause, this prevents the buffer overflow.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < 0fa9303c4b9493727e0d3a6ac3729300e3013930affected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < 37aed407496bf6de8910e588edb04d2435fa7011affected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < 6eec67bfb25637f9b51e584cf59ddace59925bc8affected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < ca4e51359608e1f29bf1f2c33c3ddf775b6b7ed1affected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < 3664ae91b26d1fd7e4cee9cde17301361f4c89d5affected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < 6b9fb82df8868dbe9ffea5874b8d35f951faedbbaffected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < b638c3fb0f163e69785ceddb3b434a9437878becaffected
LinuxLinux51f3baad7de943780ce0c17bd7975df567dd6e14 < 17c8d794527f01def0d1c8b7dc2d7b8d34fed0e6affected
LinuxLinux4.12affected
LinuxLinux0 < 4.12unaffected
LinuxLinux5.4.300 <= 5.4.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.10.245 <= 5.10.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.15.194 <= 5.15.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.1.155 <= 6.1.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.6.109 <= 6.6.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.12.50 <= 6.12.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.16.10 <= 6.16.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.17 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

References