CVE-2025-38281 wifi: mt76: mt7996: Add NULL check in mt7996_thermal_init
A missing NULL check in the mt7996 thermal initialization can cause a kernel crash, leading to denial of service.
- 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-2025-38281?
CVE-2025-38281 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:
wifi: mt76: mt7996: Add NULL check in mt7996_thermal_init
devm_kasprintf() can return a NULL pointer on failure,but this returned value in mt7996_thermal_init() is not checked. Add NULL check in mt7996_thermal_init(), to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference error.
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38281?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38281?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38281 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38281 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38281, GHSA-8xm2-h3q7-588p, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38281.