CVE-2025-38450 wifi: mt76: mt7925: prevent NULL pointer dereference in mt7925_sta_set_decap_offload()
A NULL pointer dereference in the mt7925 WiFi driver causes a kernel panic when a station is not fully initialized, 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-2025-38450?
CVE-2025-38450 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 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: mt7925: prevent NULL pointer dereference in mt7925_sta_set_decap_offload()
Add a NULL check for msta->vif before accessing its members to prevent a kernel panic in AP mode deployment. This also fix the issue reported in [1].
The crash occurs when this function is triggered before the station is fully initialized. The call trace shows a page fault at mt7925_sta_set_decap_offload() due to accessing resources when msta->vif is NULL.
Fix this by adding an early return if msta->vif is NULL and also check wcid.sta is ready. This ensures we only proceed with decap offload configuration when the station's state is properly initialized.
[14739.655703] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffffffffffffffa0 [14739.811820] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 895854 Comm: hostapd Tainted: G [14739.821394] Tainted: [C]=CRAP, [O]=OOT_MODULE [14739.825746] Hardware name: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.1 (DT) [14739.831577] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [14739.838538] pc : mt7925_sta_set_decap_offload+0xc0/0x1b8 [mt7925_common] [14739.845271] lr : mt7925_sta_set_decap_offload+0x58/0x1b8 [mt7925_common] [14739.851985] sp : ffffffc085efb500 [14739.855295] x29: ffffffc085efb500 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: ffffff807803a158 [14739.862436] x26: ffffff8041ececb8 x25: 0000000000000001 x24: 0000000000000001 [14739.869577] x23: 0000000000000001 x22: 0000000000000008 x21: ffffff8041ecea88 [14739.876715] x20: ffffff8041c19ca0 x19: ffffff8078031fe0 x18: 0000000000000000 [14739.883853] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffffffe2aeac1110 x15: 000000559da48080 [14739.890991] x14: 0000000000000001 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000 [14739.898130] x11: 0a10020001008e88 x10: 0000000000001a50 x9 : ffffffe26457bfa0 [14739.905269] x8 : ffffff8042013bb0 x7 : ffffff807fb6cbf8 x6 : dead000000000100 [14739.912407] x5 : dead000000000122 x4 : ffffff80780326c8 x3 : 0000000000000000 [14739.919546] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffffff8041ececb8 [14739.926686] Call trace: [14739.929130] mt7925_sta_set_decap_offload+0xc0/0x1b8 [mt7925_common] [14739.935505] ieee80211_check_fast_rx+0x19c/0x510 [mac80211] [14739.941344] _sta_info_move_state+0xe4/0x510 [mac80211] [14739.946860] sta_info_move_state+0x1c/0x30 [mac80211] [14739.952116] sta_apply_auth_flags.constprop.0+0x90/0x1b0 [mac80211] [14739.958708] sta_apply_parameters+0x234/0x5e0 [mac80211] [14739.964332] ieee80211_add_station+0xdc/0x190 [mac80211] [14739.969950] nl80211_new_station+0x46c/0x670 [cfg80211] [14739.975516] genl_family_rcv_msg_doit+0xdc/0x150 [14739.980158] genl_rcv_msg+0x218/0x298 [14739.983830] netlink_rcv_skb+0x64/0x138 [14739.987670] genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 [14739.990816] netlink_unicast+0x314/0x380 [14739.994742] netlink_sendmsg+0x198/0x3f0 [14739.998664] __sock_sendmsg+0x64/0xc0 [14740.002324] ____sys_sendmsg+0x260/0x298 [14740.006242] ___sys_sendmsg+0xb4/0x110
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38450?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38450?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38450 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38450 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38450, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38450, GHSA-fxqm-p968-c5x9, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38450.