Vulnerability in Linux
CVE-2026-63985
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 < eeprom_len, but does not check that offset + length stays within eeprom_len. The ioctl equivalent (ethtool_get_any_eeprom() in ioctl.c) has always enforced both bounds: if (eeprom.offset + eeprom.len > 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.
EPSS: 0.001 (2.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Linux — versions 96d971e307cc0e434f96329b42bbd98cfbca07d2, 5.13, 0
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-63985?
- CVE-2026-63985 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-07-19.
- How severe is CVE-2026-63985?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.