CVE-2025-38110

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

net/mdiobus: Fix potential out-of-bounds clause 45 read/write access

When using publicly available tools like mdio-tools to read/write data from/to network interface and its PHY via C45 (clause 45) mdiobus, there is no verification of parameters passed to the ioctl and it accepts any mdio address. Currently there is support for 32 addresses in kernel via PHY_MAX_ADDR define, but it is possible to pass higher value than that via ioctl. While read/write operation should generally fail in this case, mdiobus provides stats array, where wrong address may allow out-of-bounds read/write.

Fix that by adding address verification before C45 read/write operation. While this excludes this access from any statistics, it improves security of read/write operation.

Weakness

The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Assume all input is malicious. Use an “accept known good” input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
• When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, “boat” may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as “red” or “blue.”
• Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code’s environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
• To reduce the likelihood of introducing an out-of-bounds read, ensure that you validate and ensure correct calculations for any length argument, buffer size calculation, or offset. Be especially careful of relying on a sentinel (i.e. special character such as NUL) in untrusted inputs.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/540.html

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/260388f79e94fb3026c419a208ece8358bb7b555
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/31bf7b2b92563a352788cf9df3698682f659bacc
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4ded22f7f3ce9714ed72c3e9c68fea1cb9388ae7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/abb0605ca00979a49572a6516f6db22c3dc57223