CVE-2025-21788

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

net: ethernet: ti: am65-cpsw: fix memleak in certain XDP cases

If the XDP program doesn't result in XDP_PASS then we leak the memory allocated by am65_cpsw_build_skb().

It is pointless to allocate SKB memory before running the XDP program as we would be wasting CPU cycles for cases other than XDP_PASS. Move the SKB allocation after evaluating the XDP program result.

This fixes the memleak. A performance boost is seen for XDP_DROP test.

XDP_DROP test: Before: 460256 rx/s 0 err/s After: 784130 rx/s 0 err/s

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact because triggering the condition requires specialized Texas Instruments AM65x hardware and an attached eXpress Data Path (XDP) program. In affected environments, processing network traffic through non-pass XDP actions results in unreleased socket buffer memory, which can lead to memory exhaustion and denial of service over time. Standard enterprise installations are not affected unless running on specific TI SoC platforms with active XDP packet filtering.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.