# CVE-2025-21930: wifi: iwlwifi: mvm: don't try to talk to a dead firmware

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel warning and potential crash by interacting with debugfs when the Intel WiFi firmware is dead.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21930, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21930, GHSA-pm2v-rvr8-mpff, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21930, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21930

## What is CVE-2025-21930?

CVE-2025-21930 is a medium-severity 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: don't try to talk to a dead firmware

This fixes:

 bad state = 0
 WARNING: CPU: 10 PID: 702 at drivers/net/wireless/inel/iwlwifi/iwl-trans.c:178 iwl_trans_send_cmd+0xba/0xe0 [iwlwifi]
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  ? __warn+0xca/0x1c0
  ? iwl_trans_send_cmd+0xba/0xe0 [iwlwifi 64fa9ad799a0e0d2ba53d4af93a53ad9a531f8d4]
  iwl_fw_dbg_clear_monitor_buf+0xd7/0x110 [iwlwifi 64fa9ad799a0e0d2ba53d4af93a53ad9a531f8d4]
  _iwl_dbgfs_fw_dbg_clear_write+0xe2/0x120 [iwlmvm 0e8adb18cea92d2c341766bcc10b18699290068a]

Ask whether the firmware is alive before sending a command.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21930?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21930?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21930 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21930 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-21930 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21930 is a medium-severity 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21930 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21930/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21930/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21930
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21930
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21930

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21930/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.