Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: kernel (UTSA-2025-987265)

high Nessus Plugin ID 268536

Synopsis

The Unity Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2025-987265 advisory.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ethtool: do not perform operations on net devices being unregistered

There is a short period between a net device starts to be unregistered and when it is actually gone. In that time frame ethtool operations could still be performed, which might end up in unwanted or undefined behaviours[1].

Do not allow ethtool operations after a net device starts its unregistration. This patch targets the netlink part as the ioctl one isn't affected: the reference to the net device is taken and the operation is executed within an rtnl lock section and the net device won't be found after unregister.

[1] For example adding Tx queues after unregister ends up in NULL pointer exceptions and UaFs, such as:

BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in kobject_get+0x14/0x90 Read of size 1 at addr ffff88801961248c by task ethtool/755

CPU: 0 PID: 755 Comm: ethtool Not tainted 5.15.0-rc6+ #778 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.14.0-4.fc34 04/014 Call Trace:
dump_stack_lvl+0x57/0x72 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x1f/0x140 kasan_report.cold+0x7f/0x11b kobject_get+0x14/0x90 kobject_add_internal+0x3d1/0x450 kobject_init_and_add+0xba/0xf0 netdev_queue_update_kobjects+0xcf/0x200 netif_set_real_num_tx_queues+0xb4/0x310 veth_set_channels+0x1c3/0x550 ethnl_set_channels+0x524/0x610

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected kernel package.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 268536

File Name: unity_linux_UTSA-2025-987265.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Family: Unity Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 10/7/2025

Updated: 10/15/2025

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-47517

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, Host/UOS-Server/release, Host/UOS-Server/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/23/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/21/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-47517

Detections

Analytics