CVE-2025-21906 wifi: iwlwifi: mvm: clean up ROC on failure
A logic error in the iwlwifi driver causes a kernel warning and potential denial of service when firmware fails to start session protection.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-21906?
CVE-2025-21906 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: iwlwifi: mvm: clean up ROC on failure
If the firmware fails to start the session protection, then we do call iwl_mvm_roc_finished() here, but that won't do anything at all because IWL_MVM_STATUS_ROC_P2P_RUNNING was never set. Set IWL_MVM_STATUS_ROC_P2P_RUNNING in the failure/stop path. If it started successfully before, it's already set, so that doesn't matter, and if it didn't start it needs to be set to clean up.
Not doing so will lead to a WARN_ON() later on a fresh remain- on-channel, since the link is already active when activated as it was never deactivated.
Weakness: CWE-665
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21906?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-21906?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-21906 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21906 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-21906, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21906, GHSA-3rmf-x7h3-c76w, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21906.