# CVE-2025-68220: net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav_dma_open_channel to return NULL on error

CVE-2025-68220 is fixed in linux on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68220, released December 16, 2025. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine.

- Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-68220
- Priority: Routine
- CVSS: 6.2 (Moderate)
- EPSS: 0.0021
- CISA KEV: not listed
- Exploited (vendor report): no
- Publicly disclosed: no
- Published: Dec 16, 2025
- Vendor advisory: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68220

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:  net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav_dma_open_channel to return NULL on error  Make knav_dma_open_channel consistently return NULL on error instead of ERR_PTR. Currently the header include/linux/soc/ti/knav_dma.h returns NULL when the driver is disabled, but the driver implementation does not even return NULL or ERR_PTR on failure, causing inconsistency in the users. This results in a crash in netcp_free_navigator_resources as followed (trimmed):  Unhandled fault: alignment exception (0x221) at 0xfffffff2 [fffffff2] *pgd=80000800207003, *pmd=82ffda003, *pte=00000000 Internal error: : 221 [#1] SMP ARM Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc7 #1 NONE Hardware name: Keystone PC is at knav_dma_close_channel+0x30/0x19c LR is at netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c  [... TRIM...]  Call trace:  knav_dma_close_channel from netcp_free_navigator_resources+0x2c/0x28c  netcp_free_navigator_resources from netcp_ndo_open+0x430/0x46c  netcp_ndo_open from __dev_open+0x114/0x29c  __dev_open from __dev_change_flags+0x190/0x208  __dev_change_flags from netif_change_flags+0x1c/0x58  netif_change_flags from dev_change_flags+0x38/0xa0  dev_change_flags from ip_auto_config+0x2c4/0x11f0  ip_auto_config from do_one_initcall+0x58/0x200  do_one_initcall from kernel_init_freeable+0x1cc/0x238  kernel_init_freeable from kernel_init+0x1c/0x12c  kernel_init from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38 [... TRIM...]  Standardize the error handling by making the function return NULL on all error conditions. The API is used in just the netcp_core.c so the impact is limited.  Note, this change, in effect reverts commit 5b6cb43b4d62 ("net: ethernet: ti: netcp_core: return error while dma channel open issue"), but provides a less error prone implementation.

## Where it's fixed

| Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | linux Debian 12.15 (bookworm) | 6.1.159-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68220](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2025-68220.md) | Dec 16, 2025 |
| Linux | linux Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 6.12.63-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68220](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2025-68220.md) | Dec 16, 2025 |
| Linux | linux Debian 14 | 6.17.10-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68220](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2025-68220.md) | Dec 16, 2025 |

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