# CVE-2025-22119: wifi: cfg80211: init wiphy_work before allocating rfkill fails

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash by causing a WiFi device initialization failure, leading to a denial of service.

- **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:** 16 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-22119, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-22119, GHSA-f42j-5x72-52wf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-22119, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-22119

## What is CVE-2025-22119?

CVE-2025-22119 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 16 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: cfg80211: init wiphy_work before allocating rfkill fails

syzbort reported a uninitialize wiphy_work_lock in cfg80211_dev_free. [1]

After rfkill allocation fails, the wiphy release process will be performed,
which will cause cfg80211_dev_free to access the uninitialized wiphy_work
related data.

Move the initialization of wiphy_work to before rfkill initialization to
avoid this issue.

[1]
INFO: trying to register non-static key.
The code is fine but needs lockdep annotation, or maybe
you didn't initialize this object before use?
turning off the locking correctness validator.
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5935 Comm: syz-executor550 Not tainted 6.14.0-rc6-syzkaller-00103-g4003c9e78778 #0
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline]
 dump_stack_lvl+0x116/0x1f0 lib/dump_stack.c:120
 assign_lock_key kernel/locking/lockdep.c:983 [inline]
 register_lock_class+0xc39/0x1240 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:1297
 __lock_acquire+0x135/0x3c40 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5103
 lock_acquire.part.0+0x11b/0x380 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5851
 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:110 [inline]
 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x3a/0x60 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:162
 cfg80211_dev_free+0x30/0x3d0 net/wireless/core.c:1196
 device_release+0xa1/0x240 drivers/base/core.c:2568
 kobject_cleanup lib/kobject.c:689 [inline]
 kobject_release lib/kobject.c:720 [inline]
 kref_put include/linux/kref.h:65 [inline]
 kobject_put+0x1e4/0x5a0 lib/kobject.c:737
 put_device+0x1f/0x30 drivers/base/core.c:3774
 wiphy_free net/wireless/core.c:1224 [inline]
 wiphy_new_nm+0x1c1f/0x2160 net/wireless/core.c:562
 ieee80211_alloc_hw_nm+0x1b7a/0x2260 net/mac80211/main.c:835
 mac80211_hwsim_new_radio+0x1d6/0x54e0 drivers/net/wireless/virtual/mac80211_hwsim.c:5185
 hwsim_new_radio_nl+0xb42/0x12b0 drivers/net/wireless/virtual/mac80211_hwsim.c:6242
 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0x202/0x2f0 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1115
 genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1195 [inline]
 genl_rcv_msg+0x565/0x800 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1210
 netlink_rcv_skb+0x16b/0x440 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2533
 genl_rcv+0x28/0x40 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1219
 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1312 [inline]
 netlink_unicast+0x53c/0x7f0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1338
 netlink_sendmsg+0x8b8/0xd70 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1882
 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:718 [inline]
 __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:733 [inline]
 ____sys_sendmsg+0xaaf/0xc90 net/socket.c:2573
 ___sys_sendmsg+0x135/0x1e0 net/socket.c:2627
 __sys_sendmsg+0x16e/0x220 net/socket.c:2659
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0xcd/0x250 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83

Close: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=aaf0488c83d1d5f4f029

Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-22119?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-22119?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-22119 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-22119 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-22119 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-22119 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 16 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-2025-22119 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2025-22119/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-22119/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-22119
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-22119
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-22119

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-22119/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
