Medium [CVE-2026-63985] add more safeties to EEPROM Netlink fallback
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-63985 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethtool: eeprom: add more safeties to EEPROM Netlink fallback The Netlink fallback path for reading module EEPROM (fallback_set_params()) validates that offset total_len) return -EINVAL; This could lead to surprises in both drivers and device FW.
Add the missing offset + length validation to fallback_set_params(), mirroring the ioctl. Similarly - ethtool core in general, and ethtool_get_any_eeprom() in particular tries to zero-init all buffers passed to the drivers to avoid any extra work of zeroing things out. eeprom_fallback() uses a plain kmalloc(), change it to zalloc.
The fallback_set_params() function fails to properly validate the length of data being read from the module's EEPROM, allowing for an out-of-bounds read. Additionally, the eeprom_fallback() function uses an uninitialized memory buffer, which could lead to the disclosure of sensitive kernel memory information.
This vulnerability could result in unexpected behavior in device drivers and firmware, and potentially expose internal kernel data. Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-125. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.
Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source
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