CVE-2025-38159 wifi: rtw88: fix the 'para' buffer size to avoid reading out of bounds
A buffer overflow in the rtw88 WiFi driver allows out-of-bounds reads, potentially causing system crashes or leaking sensitive kernel memory.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-38159?
CVE-2025-38159 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, 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: rtw88: fix the 'para' buffer size to avoid reading out of bounds
Set the size to 6 instead of 2, since 'para' array is passed to 'rtw_fw_bt_wifi_control(rtwdev, para[0], ¶[1])', which reads 5 bytes:
void rtw_fw_bt_wifi_control(struct rtw_dev *rtwdev, u8 op_code, u8 *data) { ... SET_BT_WIFI_CONTROL_DATA1(h2c_pkt, *data); SET_BT_WIFI_CONTROL_DATA2(h2c_pkt, *(data + 1)); ... SET_BT_WIFI_CONTROL_DATA5(h2c_pkt, *(data + 4));
Detected using the static analysis tool - Svace.
Weakness: CWE-125
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38159?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38159?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2025-38159 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38159 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as AZL-64532, BELL-CVE-2025-38159, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38159, GHSA-92p5-rr34-c98q, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38159, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38159 and 3 more.