Red Hat RHEL 7 ELS Kernel Updates Fix i40e, e1000e and vsock Memory Flaws
Patch & Detection Intelligence · 11 sources · Updated 3mo ago · First seen Dec 1, 2025
Red Hat released Important-rated kernel and kernel-rt updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extended Lifecycle Support, addressing memory-safety flaws in the Intel i40e and e1000e network drivers and a vsock vulnerability. The i40e_vc_config_queues_msg() flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-39971, inadequately validates traffic-class indexes and can enable a low-privileged attacker to trigger out-of-bounds memory access, potentially causing memory corruption, denial of service, or code execution; Red Hat rates it CVSS 7.6.
The updates also remediate CVE-2025-39898, a heap-overflow condition in e1000_set_eeprom() caused by insufficient EEPROM-change length validation, and CVE-2025-40248, which can cause vsock memory corruption. RHSA-2026:1581 covers RHEL 7 ELS systems on x86_64, IBM Z, and IBM Power, while RHSA-2026:1623 supplies kernel-rt version 3.10.0-1160.146.1.rt56.1298.el7 for RHEL for Real Time 7 x86_64 ELS. Red Hat says no qualifying mitigations are available and requires a reboot after installation for the fixes to take effect.
