# 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.

- **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:** 25 Jul 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38450, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38450, GHSA-fxqm-p968-c5x9, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38450

## 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 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38450?

It affects 1 product.


Products: 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

- [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-2025-38450 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38450 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-2025-38450/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38450/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38450
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38450
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38450

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38450/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.