Executive brief
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Intel 'ice' network driver could cause a system crash or instability when the driver is removed or fails to initialize. This occurs because the system fails to properly clean up Precision Time Protocol (PTP) resources during certain error conditions. While primarily affecting system availability, such kernel-level errors can sometimes be leveraged to gain unauthorized access or disrupt critical network operations.
Technical details
A resource management vulnerability exists in the Intel 'ice' driver's PTP (Precision Time Protocol) implementation. When the driver encounters an error during probe, PTP initialization, or PTP restart (e.g., during NVM updates or resets), it fails to call 'ice_ptp_cleanup_pf' and 'mutex_destroy' for 'ps_lock'. This leaves the 'ice_adapter' object in an inconsistent state where the port list is not empty during object destruction, triggering a kernel WARNING and potential use-after-free or memory leak scenarios. The fix ensures proper cleanup calls are made in error paths and transitions the PTP state to 'uninitialized' to prevent duplicate release attempts. Patches are available in stable kernel branches 6.12.60 and later.
Affected products
- Linux Linux Kernel 6.12.11 to 6.12.60, 6.13
Timeline
- 2025-10-20: other: Initial patch authored
- 2025-12-16: advisory: CVE-2025-68215 published