# CVE-2025-37897: wifi: plfxlc: Remove erroneous assert in plfxlc_mac_release

> A faulty assertion in the PureLifi WiFi driver causes a kernel warning and potential crash when a device is disconnected or probe fails.

- **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:** 20 May 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-37897, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37897, GHSA-x6xg-mjxq-9qw2, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37897, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-37897, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37897

## What is CVE-2025-37897?

CVE-2025-37897 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 20 May 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: plfxlc: Remove erroneous assert in plfxlc_mac_release

plfxlc_mac_release() asserts that mac->lock is held. This assertion is
incorrect, because even if it was possible, it would not be the valid
behaviour. The function is used when probe fails or after the device is
disconnected. In both cases mac->lock can not be held as the driver is
not working with the device at the moment. All functions that use mac->lock
unlock it just after it was held. There is also no need to hold mac->lock
for plfxlc_mac_release() itself, as mac data is not affected, except for
mac->flags, which is modified atomically.

This bug leads to the following warning:
================================================================
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 127 at drivers/net/wireless/purelifi/plfxlc/mac.c:106 plfxlc_mac_release+0x7d/0xa0
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 PID: 127 Comm: kworker/0:2 Not tainted 6.1.124-syzkaller #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024
Workqueue: usb_hub_wq hub_event
RIP: 0010:plfxlc_mac_release+0x7d/0xa0 drivers/net/wireless/purelifi/plfxlc/mac.c:106
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 probe+0x941/0xbd0 drivers/net/wireless/purelifi/plfxlc/usb.c:694
 usb_probe_interface+0x5c0/0xaf0 drivers/usb/core/driver.c:396
 really_probe+0x2ab/0xcb0 drivers/base/dd.c:639
 __driver_probe_device+0x1a2/0x3d0 drivers/base/dd.c:785
 driver_probe_device+0x50/0x420 drivers/base/dd.c:815
 __device_attach_driver+0x2cf/0x510 drivers/base/dd.c:943
 bus_for_each_drv+0x183/0x200 drivers/base/bus.c:429
 __device_attach+0x359/0x570 drivers/base/dd.c:1015
 bus_probe_device+0xba/0x1e0 drivers/base/bus.c:489
 device_add+0xb48/0xfd0 drivers/base/core.c:3696
 usb_set_configuration+0x19dd/0x2020 drivers/usb/core/message.c:2165
 usb_generic_driver_probe+0x84/0x140 drivers/usb/core/generic.c:238
 usb_probe_device+0x130/0x260 drivers/usb/core/driver.c:293
 really_probe+0x2ab/0xcb0 drivers/base/dd.c:639
 __driver_probe_device+0x1a2/0x3d0 drivers/base/dd.c:785
 driver_probe_device+0x50/0x420 drivers/base/dd.c:815
 __device_attach_driver+0x2cf/0x510 drivers/base/dd.c:943
 bus_for_each_drv+0x183/0x200 drivers/base/bus.c:429
 __device_attach+0x359/0x570 drivers/base/dd.c:1015
 bus_probe_device+0xba/0x1e0 drivers/base/bus.c:489
 device_add+0xb48/0xfd0 drivers/base/core.c:3696
 usb_new_device+0xbdd/0x18f0 drivers/usb/core/hub.c:2620
 hub_port_connect drivers/usb/core/hub.c:5477 [inline]
 hub_port_connect_change drivers/usb/core/hub.c:5617 [inline]
 port_event drivers/usb/core/hub.c:5773 [inline]
 hub_event+0x2efe/0x5730 drivers/usb/core/hub.c:5855
 process_one_work+0x8a9/0x11d0 kernel/workqueue.c:2292
 worker_thread+0xa47/0x1200 kernel/workqueue.c:2439
 kthread+0x28d/0x320 kernel/kthread.c:376
 ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:295
 </TASK>
================================================================

Found by Linux Verification Center (linuxtesting.org) with Syzkaller.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37897?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-37897?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-37897 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37897 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-37897 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-37897 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 20 May 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-2025-37897 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-2025-37897/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37897/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-37897
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37897
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-37897

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37897/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.