# CVE-2025-38266: pinctrl: mediatek: eint: Fix invalid pointer dereference for v1 platforms

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's MediaTek pinctrl driver causes a system crash during boot on specific v1 platforms.

- **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:** 10 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 14 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38266, GHSA-gv65-4gjf-wcqp, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38266

## What is CVE-2025-38266?

CVE-2025-38266 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 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:

pinctrl: mediatek: eint: Fix invalid pointer dereference for v1 platforms

Commit 3ef9f710efcb ("pinctrl: mediatek: Add EINT support for multiple
addresses") introduced an access to the 'soc' field of struct
mtk_pinctrl in mtk_eint_do_init() and for that an include of
pinctrl-mtk-common-v2.h.

However, pinctrl drivers relying on the v1 common driver include
pinctrl-mtk-common.h instead, which provides another definition of
struct mtk_pinctrl that does not contain an 'soc' field.

Since mtk_eint_do_init() can be called both by v1 and v2 drivers, it
will now try to dereference an invalid pointer when called on v1
platforms. This has been observed on Genio 350 EVK (MT8365), which
crashes very early in boot (the kernel trace can only be seen with
earlycon).

In order to fix this, since 'struct mtk_pinctrl' was only needed to get
a 'struct mtk_eint_pin', make 'struct mtk_eint_pin' a parameter
of mtk_eint_do_init() so that callers need to supply it, removing
mtk_eint_do_init()'s dependency on any particular 'struct mtk_pinctrl'.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38266?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38266?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38266 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38266 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-2025-38266 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38266 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 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-2025-38266 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-2025-38266/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38266/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38266
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38266
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38266

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38266/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.