# CVE-2025-38121: wifi: iwlwifi: mld: avoid panic on init failure

> A null pointer dereference in the iwlwifi driver during initialization failure can cause a kernel panic, leading to 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:** 3 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38121, GHSA-2prg-gcgc-mm7v, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38121

## What is CVE-2025-38121?

CVE-2025-38121 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Jul 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: mld: avoid panic on init failure

In case of an error during init, in_hw_restart will be set, but it will
never get cleared.
Instead, we will retry to init again, and then we will act like we are in a
restart when we are actually not.

This causes (among others) to a NULL pointer dereference when canceling
rx_omi::finished_work, that was not even initialized, because we thought
that we are in hw_restart.

Set in_hw_restart to true only if the fw is running, then we know that
FW was loaded successfully and we are not going to the retry loop.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38121?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38121?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38121 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38121 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-2025-38121 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38121 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Jul 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-2025-38121 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-2025-38121/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38121/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38121
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38121
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38121

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38121/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.