CVE-2025-38532: 
Linux Debian vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-38532 is a vulnerability discovered in the Linux kernel's network subsystem, specifically in the libwx driver component. The vulnerability was disclosed on August 16, 2025, and affects the handling of Rx ring descriptors during device reset operations (NVD, Debian Tracker).

The vulnerability occurs when device reset is triggered by feature changes such as toggling Rx VLAN offload. When wx->doreset() is called to reinitialize Rx rings, the hardware descriptor ring may retain stale values from previous sessions. The issue stems from only setting the length to 0 in rxdesc[0], which results in building malformed SKBs (Socket Buffer Structures). This can lead to a kernel BUG at net/core/skbuff.c:2814, causing system instability (NVD).

The vulnerability can cause system instability and kernel panics, as evidenced by the reported kernel BUG and invalid opcode errors. This can result in system crashes and potential denial of service conditions (NVD).

The vulnerability has been fixed in various Linux distributions. Debian has patched the issue in multiple releases: bullseye (5.10.223-1), bookworm (6.1.137-1), and trixie (6.12.41-1). Users are advised to update their systems to the fixed versions (Debian Tracker).