# CVE-2025-38505: wifi: mwifiex: discard erroneous disassoc frames on STA interface

> A flaw in the mwifiex driver causes kernel warnings and potential instability when processing erroneous disassociation frames in concurrent STA/AP mode.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-38505, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38505, GHSA-vcxg-6r55-jcpr, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-38505, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-38505

## What is CVE-2025-38505?

CVE-2025-38505 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Aug 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: mwifiex: discard erroneous disassoc frames on STA interface

When operating in concurrent STA/AP mode with host MLME enabled,
the firmware incorrectly sends disassociation frames to the STA
interface when clients disconnect from the AP interface.
This causes kernel warnings as the STA interface processes
disconnect events that don't apply to it:

[ 1303.240540] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 513 at net/wireless/mlme.c:141 cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x78/0xec [cfg80211]
[ 1303.250861] Modules linked in: 8021q garp stp mrp llc rfcomm bnep btnxpuart nls_iso8859_1 nls_cp437 onboard_us
[ 1303.327651] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 513 Comm: kworker/u9:2 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc1+ #3 PREEMPT
[ 1303.335937] Hardware name: Toradex Verdin AM62 WB on Verdin Development Board (DT)
[ 1303.343588] Workqueue: MWIFIEX_RX_WORK_QUEUE mwifiex_rx_work_queue [mwifiex]
[ 1303.350856] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[ 1303.357904] pc : cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x78/0xec [cfg80211]
[ 1303.364065] lr : cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x70/0xec [cfg80211]
[ 1303.370221] sp : ffff800083053be0
[ 1303.373590] x29: ffff800083053be0 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000
[ 1303.380855] x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 00000000ffffffff x24: ffff000002c5b8ae
[ 1303.388120] x23: ffff000002c5b884 x22: 0000000000000001 x21: 0000000000000008
[ 1303.395382] x20: ffff000002c5b8ae x19: ffff0000064dd408 x18: 0000000000000006
[ 1303.402646] x17: 3a36333a61623a30 x16: 32206d6f72662063 x15: ffff800080bfe048
[ 1303.409910] x14: ffff000003625300 x13: 0000000000000001 x12: 0000000000000000
[ 1303.417173] x11: 0000000000000002 x10: ffff000003958600 x9 : ffff000003625300
[ 1303.424434] x8 : ffff00003fd9ef40 x7 : ffff0000039fc280 x6 : 0000000000000002
[ 1303.431695] x5 : ffff0000038976d4 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000003186
[ 1303.438956] x2 : 000000004836ba20 x1 : 0000000000006986 x0 : 00000000d00479de
[ 1303.446221] Call trace:
[ 1303.448722]  cfg80211_process_disassoc+0x78/0xec [cfg80211] (P)
[ 1303.454894]  cfg80211_rx_mlme_mgmt+0x64/0xf8 [cfg80211]
[ 1303.460362]  mwifiex_process_mgmt_packet+0x1ec/0x460 [mwifiex]
[ 1303.466380]  mwifiex_process_sta_rx_packet+0x1bc/0x2a0 [mwifiex]
[ 1303.472573]  mwifiex_handle_rx_packet+0xb4/0x13c [mwifiex]
[ 1303.478243]  mwifiex_rx_work_queue+0x158/0x198 [mwifiex]
[ 1303.483734]  process_one_work+0x14c/0x28c
[ 1303.487845]  worker_thread+0x2cc/0x3d4
[ 1303.491680]  kthread+0x12c/0x208
[ 1303.495014]  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20

Add validation in the STA receive path to verify that disassoc/deauth
frames originate from the connected AP. Frames that fail this check
are discarded early, preventing them from reaching the MLME layer and
triggering WARN_ON().

This filtering logic is similar with that used in the
ieee80211_rx_mgmt_disassoc() function in mac80211, which drops
disassoc frames that don't match the current BSSID
(!ether_addr_equal(mgmt->bssid, sdata->vif.cfg.ap_addr)), ensuring
only relevant frames are processed.

Tested on:
- 8997 with FW 16.68.1.p197

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38505?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38505?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-38505 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38505 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-2025-38505 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38505 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Aug 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-2025-38505 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-2025-38505/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38505/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38505
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38505
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38505

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38505/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.