CVE-2025-38186 | bnxt_en: Fix double invocation of bnxt_ulp_stop()/bnxt_ulp_start()

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bnxt_en: Fix double invocation of bnxt_ulp_stop()/bnxt_ulp_start() Before the commit under the Fixes tag below, bnxt_ulp_stop() and bnxt_ulp_start() were always invoked in pairs. After that commit, the new bnxt_ulp_restart() can be invoked after bnxt_ulp_stop() has been called. This may result in the RoCE driver's aux driver .suspend() method being invoked twice. The 2nd bnxt_re_suspend() call will crash when it dereferences a NULL pointer: (NULL ib_device): Handle device suspend call BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000b78 PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 20 UID: 0 PID: 181 Comm: kworker/u96:5 Tainted: G S 6.15.0-rc1 #4 PREEMPT(voluntary) Tainted: [S]=CPU_OUT_OF_SPEC Hardware name: Dell Inc. PowerEdge R730/072T6D, BIOS 2.4.3 01/17/2017 Workqueue: bnxt_pf_wq bnxt_sp_task [bnxt_en] RIP: 0010:bnxt_re_suspend+0x45/0x1f0 [bnxt_re] Code: 8b 05 a7 3c 5b f5 48 89 44 24 18 31 c0 49 8b 5c 24 08 4d 8b 2c 24 e8 ea 06 0a f4 48 c7 c6 04 60 52 c0 48 89 df e8 1b ce f9 ff <48> 8b 83 78 0b 00 00 48 8b 80 38 03 00 00 a8 40 0f 85 b5 00 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffffa2e84084fd88 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000001 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffffb4b6b934 RDI: 00000000ffffffff RBP: ffffa1760954c9c0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: c0000000ffffdfff R10: 0000000000000001 R11: ffffa2e84084fb50 R12: ffffa176031ef070 R13: ffffa17609775000 R14: ffffa17603adc180 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffa17daa397000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000b78 CR3: 00000004aaa30003 CR4: 00000000003706f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> bnxt_ulp_stop+0x69/0x90 [bnxt_en] bnxt_sp_task+0x678/0x920 [bnxt_en] ? __schedule+0x514/0xf50 process_scheduled_works+0x9d/0x400 worker_thread+0x11c/0x260 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 kthread+0xfe/0x1e0 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x2b/0x40 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Check the BNXT_EN_FLAG_ULP_STOPPED flag and do not proceed if the flag is already set. This will preserve the original symmetrical bnxt_ulp_stop() and bnxt_ulp_start(). Also, inside bnxt_ulp_start(), clear the BNXT_EN_FLAG_ULP_STOPPED flag after taking the mutex to avoid any race condition. And for symmetry, only proceed in bnxt_ulp_start() if the BNXT_EN_FLAG_ULP_STOPPED is set.

Published: 2025-07-04 Last update: 2025-11-19 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-38186 is rated Low Risk (22.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-38186

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-07-05 0.02%

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-38186

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-38186

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-38186

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-38186 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38186
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38186
suse medium CVE-2025-38186 severity moderate: SUSE including 358 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 836 product×package rows across 128 product lines (Image SLES-Azure-3P, Image SLES-Azure-Basic, … (128 product lines)): Fixed 311, Known Not Affected 273, Known Affected 231, First Fixed 21. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-38186/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-38186 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 162, not-affected 134, released 108, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-38186

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-38186

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.10, < 6.12.35 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.15.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.16 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.16 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.16:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-38186

cvelogic Threat Intelligence