CVE-2025-40255net: core: prevent NULL deref in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower()

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: core: prevent NULL deref in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower() The ethtool tsconfig Netlink path can trigger a null pointer dereference. A call chain such as: tsconfig_prepare_data() -> dev_get_hwtstamp_phylib() -> vlan_hwtstamp_get() -> generic_hwtstamp_get_lower() -> generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower() results in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower() being called with kernel_cfg->ifr as NULL. The generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower() function does not expect a NULL ifr and dereferences it, leading to a system crash. Fix this by adding a NULL check for kernel_cfg->ifr in generic_hwtstamp_ioctl_lower(). If ifr is NULL, return -EINVAL.

Affected packages & fixed versions

Affected products (as reported)

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8817f816ae41908e9625c0770c4af0dcdcc01238
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f796a8dec9beafcc0f6f0d3478ed685a15c5e062